Solyaris

Long Space-Time No See

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Russian director Andrei Tarkovski delivers Solyaris by the year 1972, a robust motion picture based on Stanislaw Lem's written output of essential fiction significance - also a work it is which often gets accounted as The Soviet Union's ruthless, rigorous answer to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey.

This latter seems to be a slightly redundant conception though. Both movies are true gems and speak blatantly different languages, mind you I, herein: they do so in the metaphoric sense. Even. I tend to think that there is no need to suspect a well-developed degree of a Cold War situation in the era's sci-fi related movie creation as these two sober directors have settled the suggested debate quite sanely/factually with seemingly no hard feelings involved along the hinted way. Records state that Kubrick liked Tarkovski's work considerably. Tarkovski, on the other hand: found Odyssey to be too cold and too inhumane. Well, he either might have had fail to realize that Odyssey's calm intentions are to coat the intaker unto an experience which is too cold and too inhumane indeed, or he might just gave an extra joke for us with this curious comment that precisely suggests, even summarily describes Kubrick's work for what it truly seems and feels to be. A thorough stare to Infinity to let us wonder if Infinity inspects us back at all.

Question arises immediately: if Tarkovski would choose to approach Space-Time Rampant, would he indeed approach it solely on humane registers? The answer is: absolutely. Stanislaw Lem's novel and this here corresponding movie variant of Extra Crispy XXL Monster Proportions! does not scrutinize the Void. Does not choose to face the Unknown deprived of all hope or filled by cautious desire to receive a signal beyond vast perspectives and majestic, yet gigantic patterns - opposed to what the masterfully accomplished agendas of 2001: a Space Odyssey are. Solyaris instead chooses to voice the language of the Unknown and the Strange, cunningly inspecting, presenting how human reacts to massively alien and immensely puzzling vibes and occurrences. Let us see what Planet Solaris has in store for us, as this is a place that has plenty of questions, and plenty of statements to offer.

Solyaris revolves around the fate of an expedition, while this particular expedition revolves around Solyaris. Made sense? Mankind established a space station to inspect the surface of the Planet in question, that which seems to be composed of some quite intriguing substance that exhibits fluid qualities with a keen readyness to suggest organic-like patterns from time to time, forming shapes and regions that are eventually do hint a huge cerebral network to coat the entire surface in. The crew that was firstly sent to the surface experienced either quite radical or quite permanent subject matters to form or to keep massively memorable accounts of, as the Report of Former Crew Member and Expedition Survivor Henri Berton - Vladislav Dvorzhetsky - informs us.



We join in by the time when Berton shows his rehearsal for his close friends, recorded quite some time ago. An official Statement he makes and we witness, a statement conducted by the Government. Berton talks intense, intense stuff, yet consensus is forming slowly yet surely among the Officials that he must have lost it during the mission. Berton claims to see the Solyaris's surface to re-arrange itself to form figures, accounts a fluid fog made of a moist, dense substance, he claims that even a garden emerged in front of his eyes, forming itself clumsily yet fervently from the same substance the Planet seems to be composed of. He even describes a huge infant whose body behaved pretty much as a loose, fluid substance as well. A series of further, unavoidable questions and an unfortunate incapacity to present evidence of flawless convince power lead to a shared consideration that Berton either must have hallucinated or been affected by forces: Unknown. And this particular Unknown is your ticket to Solyaris.

Berton is a strong man - Berton WAS a strong man. Now he keeps the dignity yet it is superhard for him to digest how unconvinced the Government was if his statement had the elements of truth to rely on. Fortunately, doubt is integral enough - integral doubt is an ideal candidate for an oxymoron, no? - to fuel the Government's curiosity and willingness to attempt to resolve the matter for good. The expedition still has three crew members on the station, waiting for instructions - so the decision makers conclude that a final inspection should be made to determine the fate of both the station and even this new branch of science called Solaristics, specifically invented and devoted to the study of the Planet.

Donatas Banionis is your primal protagonist, giving you Kris Kelvin, a Knower of Soul, Spirit and Mind. Well, at least these are the assumptions. And the hopes, too. Kelvin is present when Berton shows his report and he is on his way to the Solyaris station in a short while so he could form a mature, well researched suggestion for the Government, made up of his superfresh findings.



- WHAT are you doing here?
- Uhm, I am TRULY not into this Philosophy stuff, sorry.

Solyaris is a quite special place to encounter. The Planet has the effective capacity to interact with the innermost depths of human psyche, materializing All It Finds - interesting. Or desired. Or feared. Lem probably was in a cheerful mood when he was inventing his quality fiction, thus the Planet has the evident tendency to offer staggering surprises - and does this by materializing the "proper cures" for the most gruesome sorrows and scars it finds in the souls it seeks to interact with. Human psyche thus Solyaris figures: losing of a Loved One is not good, not good at all. So the Planet has immense of a fun period materializing former key companions of the humans Solyaris recognizes in its vicinity. Shortly after his arrival, Kelvin encounters his long dead wife. You can imagine how baffled he ends up as - mind you that the other two scientists that are still on the station are aware of the Planet's games and pastimes already, so they just "simply" live through the intense, yet fearfully realistic experience Solyaris entertains them with, respectively. Each and every one of them have their Visitor, their Loved Companions. And this is where it gets even more interesting.

Opinion Onion Minigame!

Can You Spot The Difference Between the Pictures Below?





Solyaris constructs the species according to the effective memories of the rememberer. The way Kelvin remembers his wife by: the way Solyaris construct and offers Hari - this is her name, you see - for him. Lem elegantly offers fiction excellence on this, giving the capacity for the constructed species to evolve on their own once they have been created.

A "startout-psyche" they possess, maybe it is more proper to regard it as a "raw psyche", a "psyche known-just-surficially", as the inner reality the species possess consist of nothing more or less or not a tad more precise or coarser than of the sum total of the elements and vibes they are remembered by as their long dead, human being originators. These startout-psyches are as rich and as majestic as they were able to show and share for the other psyche which REMEMBERS them, and vice versa: YOUR visitor will possess the kind and quality of a startout-psyche YOU conceptualized her/him to possess. Blatantly brilliant, chilling idea. Oh, and surely, they Haunt you. Or they Love you. Depends how you remembered and remember them.



Their Likeness to the Real Thing is beyond Likeness, yet even their Reality is beyond the Real Thing as they ARE what you BELIEVED them to be.



So it's actually quite frightening, as Lem offers you simulacrums, yet Lem's simulacrum is the Realer Than Real Deal, as the replica recognizes and worships the rules you set in motion for it via conceptualizing all the inner values and emotional vibes you suspected them to be operating with.

Lem and Tarkovski solidify this haunting concept further on via the autonomy the simulacrums possess, as they have the capacity, they have the intellect to figure out that they are but the sum total of the conceptions their rememberers remember them by. A point should arrive - a point at which the simulacrum should recognize its compromised autonomy. A start-out autonomy that is bound by the concepts you threw the simulacrum between by THINKING of the replica the way as you DID - so the copy either is to realize her/his "dreamlike" quality and grow tired of it, or might simply ask: why not dream a reality for myself similarly as my remember dreams hers/his of my current state?

And All of a Sudden: a New Being Dreams on, a New Human is Born.

Solyaris eventually offers an elegant, supportive moral dilemma as well, one which welcomely remains free of any judgmental connotation, a rare treasure to come by when moral sentences are to be passed on a subject. Notice how Lem and Tarkovski ask us almost causally though if we have an immediate responsibility when we commit the mere act of perceiving others. Is it safe, sane or recommended to solidify the cautious concepts we invent about someone? You decide.

The Endsequence of the movie is quite a baffler, and seems to resonate with the conclusion we approached at quite harmonically. Thus question arise if there are any significant qualities present to make "proper" or "needed" distinctions between what is believed to be "real" and what is offered and maintained by Solyaris and its species as: "realer-than-real." The Endsequence is evidently one of the most effective goosebump-unleasher we ever witnessed in a motion picture buildup.

Solyaris has the fortunate tendency to shoot away exquisitely delicious notions to left you think massively, and offers these precious moments in a very elegant, casual manner. One of my personal favorite is the notion that: Man does NOT seek the Unknown, he is blatantly afraid of it, actually. He would instead prefer to widen his OWN image, he hopes to find a Mirror in the Infinite Voids of Space-Time, and does not even have the means, the concepts, the capacities to deal with something which is immensely different than him or is evidently beyond him. A quite provocative thought in my opinion, pointing at a blatantly legit and curious (frightening, Mr. Lovecraft?) road that is yet to be explored. Lem offers an elegant wink at cosmic horror indeed, depicting its chilling, void nature via masterful insight and precision.



Be aware that this here aforementioned side-content - CHECK THIS exquisite repetition flaw: - is but a side-content indeed, Lem and Tarkovski do offer a whole precious package of these extremely pleasant thought provokers, thus my final recommendation is evidently this: give Solyaris the second viewing. And the third.



Now what remains is simply THIS: how the DOG with the BROWN FUR does FIT into the picture??



Product Description:

The Original Solaris Soundtrack.

Assumption:

a Priceless Geek Item.

Definition:

a Priceless Geek Item is an Item a Geek Kills For.

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