Solaris (DVD 2002)

Andrei Tarkovsky is famous for his filmmaking due to the fact that he has a very philosophical and ambitious approach to this artform. And this is art; he really wants to bring film up in acknowlegement to the same level as for paintings, litterature (Dostojevsky and Tolstoi) and music.
Solaris is a film made in 1972, based on a book written by Stanislav Lem which I have not read. I have seen this film two times and the most impressive feature is the creativity and the dedication to the job with the scarce budget taken into consideration. It reminds me a bit of 2001 a Space Oddesey made by Stanley Kubrick (1968). It's a science fiction film, but it must not be compared to films of this genre made in Hollywood.
The important question here is what does Mr. Tarkovsky want to say? I think this film is about his answer to the following question: What is the meaning of it all, is life meaningful? Besides the fact that every individual's answer to that question is depending on the biochemical condition in each persons brain, there's a more universal answer to it as well.
Solaris is, as I see it, the solar system in which we all live. In some sequences of the film we see actors standing outside and just savouring life like green plants and living animals. But some actors are definately not interested in that kind of 'things'. In stead they are cold and arrogant scientists looking down on life and living objects in a surperior super-human way.
The psychologist with the leading role in the film leaves earth and goes up to a space station where they are experimenting with making artificial humans. They have even re-produced the psychologist's former and now dead wife and he falls in love with her or 'it'. The other scientists in that spacestation regard her as a low-satus creature without value since she's really not a human being, and there is a large difference between the cold scientists attitude towads this 'lifeform' and that of the psychologist. (Maybe this movie has influenced the other sci-fi movie 'Bladerunner' by this sequence.)

Anyway up in space they seem to have lost track of their own life, and they are looking down on the biosphere benieth them and probably longing for it. I then think of the fact that astronauts seeing earth from the outer space, often changed their attitude towards life on this blue planet and starts to value it a lot higher. Then he returns back to the biosphere where he cane from and he finds his mate in a different time-space. (like in Kubricks film from 1968). So I think this movie tries to tell us that we must find meaning in our own lives by love and admiration towards all living creatures. Sir David Attenborough will probably agree on that.
Well, this is the heavy metal of films, meaning very intellectual and academic. If you are interested in philosophy, this is a gem. In that respect the movie is a classic and I can really recommend it. If you are used to western made science fiction made in Hollywood, this is probably not your cup of tea, but you could try the new version made in 2003(?) with George Clooney in the leading role.