Solaris

1972 Sci Fi

Based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, Solaris centers on widowed psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donata Banionis), who is sent to a space station orbiting a water-dominated planet called Solaris to investigate the mysterious death of a doctor, as well as the mental problems plaguing the dwindling number of cosmonauts on the station. Finding the remaining crew to be behaving oddly and aloof, Kelvin is more than surprised when he meets his seven-years-dead wife Khari (Natalya Bondarchuk) on the station. It quickly becomes apparent that Solaris possesses something that brings out repressed memories and obsessions within the cosmonauts on the space station, leaving Kelvin to question his perception of reality. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, Solaris was remade by Steven Soderbergh in 2002.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Starring: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Yuri Yarvet, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Vladislav Dvorjetzki

Reviews

  • A dazzlingly imaginative work with awesome production values and special effects that bear comparison to those of "2001."

    Kevin Thomas - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

  • Stands with the greatest science-fiction movies ever made.

    David Sterritt - Christian Science Monitor

    19 January 2013

  • An amazing celluloid poem by a filmmaker whom Ingmar Bergman called "the greatest." He very nearly was. He was also, perhaps, too pure a creator and reckless a citizen to survive unscathed.

    Michael Wilmington - The Chicago Tribune

    19 January 2013

  • His (Tarkovsky's) pictures, and his sounds -- such as the symphonic drip of raindrops in a wooded pond -- tell more than just the immediate story; they rejuvenate the mind.

    Desson Thomson - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

  • Tarkovsky's eerie mystic parable is given substance by the filmmaker's boldly original grasp of film language and the remarkable performances by all the principals.

    Jonathan Rosenbaum - Chicago Reader

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Science Fiction Film

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1977)

     
  • Andrey Tarkovskiy

    Cannes Film Festival (1972)