The Film
Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky made a number of intellectually complex films during his career (Andrei Rublev, The Sacrifice), but none of them resonated with audiences like his sci-fi masterpiece, Solaris. Often compared with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey -- a comparison that Tarkovsky detested as he felt his film was less about technology and more focused on human emotion and the subconscious -- Solaris was made under the watchful eye of the Russian government and it's a wonder that it was not butchered by the Kremlin who gave the director fits throughout his career.
Tarkovsky based his film on a novel by Stanislaw Lem (the highly regarded Polish science fiction writer) and the two artists struggled over the content of the film from the onset; Lem disliked the film on the grounds that Tarkovsky had ignored most of the philosophical elements in his story and how it related to man's place in the universe. Lem disliked the film so much that he praised director Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris with George Clooney as a superior telling of his book.
Solaris runs 166 minutes, but it feels much longer due to Tarkovsky's deliberately slow pacing during the opening sequence on earth; the opening forty-five minutes are essential to the film, however, and you will just have to have a few drinks to get through it. The sense of isolation and hopelessness stuck in space is the connection to Kubrick, but Tarkovsky does it without the all-knowing HAL and it is frightening to watch the scientists go mad aboard the space station. Solaris was the most accessible of Tarkovsky's films (which is also a bit frightening) and it is deeply cerebral stuff. Just don't plan on having a restful night of sleep after you watch it.
The Picture
The film has a very dramatic feel to it and the Blu-ray transfer conveys that quite well. The black and white sequences are sharper looking with above-average black levels and a lot of detail is present. The overall image, however, is quite soft and grain-freaks will approve of the image's structure. Not a reference quality disc from an image perspective, but the film has never looked better.
The Sound
The original monaural soundtrack which was recorded in Russian has been remastered as a 24-bit 1.0 mix and there isn't much to criticize or commend. It sounds quite crisp and well balanced, but I had to turn the volume down during a few sequences as the mix had too much punch; the treble was slightly brittle sounding in a few scenes. The surround channels enjoyed taking the night off.
The Extras
Criterion has packed a lot of bonus material on this Blu-ray transfer and almost all of it is mandatory viewing if you really want to understand the film better. The nine deleted and alternate scenes were wisely left on the cutting-room floor, but the real borscht can be found listening to the audio commentaries with Tarkovsky scholars -- Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, and watching the video interview with actress Natalya Bondarchuk. All three provide a great deal of insightful information that will certainly make the film less confusing.
The excerpt from a documentary about author, Stanislaw Lem, is interesting but I think viewers would be better served picking up a copy of the book; Tarkovsky's film doesn't explore a number of Lem's themes which created a great deal of animosity between the director and author; Lem disliked the film a great deal as a result.
The supplemental material is offered in 1080i and looks quite good. The overall collection of material should be more than satisfying for both devotees and viewers who are new to Tarkovsky.
Final Thoughts
Tarkovsky's sci-fi classic looks and sounds fantastic, but the deliberately slow pacing makes this cerebral bit of filmmaking less effective than it could have been. Criterion has done a masterful job with this transfer and it is certainly one of the more thought-provoking titles released in 2011 so far, but I would keep that bottle of vodka close. Recommended.
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