Runtime:
168 minutes
Directed
by: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring:
Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Juri Jarvet, Anatoily
Solonitsyn
From:
Mosfilm
I
know, I am late; it happened. Being tired for the entire day and even
taking a nap has thrown my schedule out of whack. Anyhow, I figured I
should see this famous Soviet sci-fi film, as I hadn't seen it nor
the Soderbergh remake, which I know is definitey not as highly
regarded. I got a free 2 week invite to Hulu Plus, and this time I
hoped I wouldn't have problems with it like I did the last time.
Well, aside from a few times where the picture stopped but the audio
kept on going... it was fine. At least I was able to play it without
any actual computer issues, but enough about that.
The
plot is that sometime in the future, psychologist Kris Kelvin
(Banionis) is asked to go to space and visit a space station that is
orbiting about a mysterious ocean-covered planet known as Solaris.
The people left on the station are acting strange and apparently are
psychologically damaged, so he has to go there to see what's going
on. Many weird things happen and Kris experiences what happens to the
crew on the station... I'll give away one thing... a thing that looks
and acts like his dead wife (Bondarchuk) appears but it's a
manifestation of the planet. It results in such things as Kelvin
wondering about himself and his attitudes and even what it means to
be human, among other heady concepts.
“Mind-bending”
and “metaphysical” are terms that have been used to describe this
motion picture, and that is accurate. This is slow and deliberately
paced, but that was alright with me. People have said this is
dream-like and I agree. It's a movie that doesn't spoon-feed
information to you and you do have to think about what's going on and
what it means. It was always interesting and I could mention what I
think it means, but spoilers so I won't. I'll just say that despite
this not being in my wheelhouse, this was great. Everything that was
done was done so well: the story (based on a Polish novel), the
acting, the characters, the run-down spaceship set, the
cinematography, the ethereal music... it all comes together almost
perfectly.
In
short, if you enjoyed 2001, then you should also see this, as it's
both the same and different, but you likely will be more apt to
enjoying this cereberal masterpiece. I am glad I finally was able to
check it out.
I'll
be back Tuesday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment