Monday, June 9, 2008

Solaris


Spoiler alert!!!

One of those rare occasions where I have read the book and seen the movie. In this case, I saw the 1972 Russian movie version of Stanislav Lem's novel "Solaris" first and then read the novel almost 10 years later. The movie version by Andrei Tarkovsky is meditative science fiction in the only way Russian's can make novels and movies. Almost over two hours long (the VHS version was two cassettes when I watched it!), it's an almost faithful version of Lem's novel. Almost since Lem's novel is mostly Polish magical realism full of ideas and plot that would be a challenge to anyone to turn it into a movie. Steve Soderbergh did his version in 2002, but it's just different. It's not a bad movie. But. Soderbergh's version just doesn't get to me as Tarkovsky's. Google this movie and you may get a different take. Nevertheless, the last scene in Tarkovsky's version almost makes me cry (yes, I admit it). Without the proper context, the video below makes no sense. And if you don't want ruin two hours of 1970's Russian science fiction film viewing, then stop reading here. Do yourself a favor. Find this movie and rent it.

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