Solaris

What would you see if your obsessions, loves, memories were materialised & bought to life? I personally don’t label intentionally slow movies as “boring”. Slowness is an amazing technique that directors can use to express different ideas & emotions — through letting each scene linger for slightly too long, the pauses between 2 characters talking. The director needs to know how to pull it off effectively & with purpose, otherwise it can feel lacking. Tarkovsky perfected this tool. Almost every scene feels it stays for far too long as a result the viewer loses the comfort of distraction ensuring the watcher has no choice but to feel, to let their minds wonder, their eyes take in everything. Tarkovsky wants the watcher to confront their own mind the same way the characters do. We don’t need other worlds, we need a mirror. The planet, Solaris, is a mirror into the human mind it causes the characters to feel their manifestations confronting their memories, subconscious & deeper feelings: grief, regret, & desire. Tarkovsky uses the unknown to give a perspective on humanity, love & connections. Set in outer space mostly, on a space station orbiting a strange planet where everything is an unknown. Through the manifestation of a deceased wife — from his own memory —  the idea of how much can you know another person, can you also know yourself?  The movie has incredible visuals. The videos of the planet makes it look unsettling as if it’s breathing, the sporadic patterns & the waves are unpredictable & pulsing like a human heartbeat. The planet feels alive in those visuals & the manifestations are extensions of it. Natalya Bondarchuk delivered a gripping (& personally unforgettable) performance, the way she played Hari gave a sense of a human but also distinctly uncanny & bizarre, this is reinforced by how the camera lingers far too long on her at times. That resurrection scene was so cool. Hari’s evolution from the start as a character that took everything at face value not challenging what she knew to eventually questioning her own existence, learning through experience. One problem i have with the movie were his outfits omg they were horrible! This is my first Tarkovsky movie (& even my first Russian movie) & i think it’s a movie that i would enjoy even more on a rewatch. I do need to check out his other works, namely Stalker. Also, Tarkovsky genius is so evident, some people are truly incredible. I wish i had patron because some of the other posters for this movie are so so cool p.s i want to try & improve my writing so ill try to make more detailed & sometimes longer reviews to challenge myself & learn i think it’ll be fun