Solaris

*Tarkovsky at the PCC: 3/7 in secondary school, I had an English teacher named Mr Cerny who introduced my friend and I, at the time unhealthily obsessed with Chris Nolan, to a Russian film director that we had never heard of. after class, we would stay and talk about movies with him, and he would tell us about the beautiful slow cinema of Mirror, Stalker and Solaris, as well as his personal favourite Nostalghia, all of which were helmed by one Andrei Tarkovsky. I'll always have the fondest memories of those classes and I'm indebted to him for introducing me to the film director who would eventually be my favourite of them all. needless to say, after all that extolling from our teacher my friend and I were eager to watch one of Tarkovsky's movies, and Solaris (probably because of our love of Interstellar) turned out to be our choice as the first of his that we would watch. I came out of that experience truly enamoured, and I have had incredibly fond memories of that viewing. the hypnotic shots of submerged grass swaying with the ripples in the water, the searing white lights of the space station blinding Kris and enveloping him amongst the stark lens flaring, and the breathtaking car sequence were all particularly etched into my memory. the choral prelude Ich Ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, the theme of Solaris, became one of my most beloved pieces of music and has never stopped being an important part of my life. 7 years after that first viewing and seeing it in 35mm for the first time, those feelings came rushing back not in ripples but in waves - yet it also felt like almost an entirely new film this time around. as an older and (arguably) more mature person now, I was able to understand its themes in a clearer way compared to my more emotional response back then. it is interesting to compare this to Interstellar, as this clearly influenced Nolan in many ways, but I think this film was much more effective in tackling the universal importance of love transcending spacial and temporal bounds. it was a shame that this particular screening was too often marred by drunken laughter from one of the audience members, but it didn't take away from the beauty and thoughtfulness of Solaris; one of my favourite soundtracks, wonderfully introspective, gloriously slow and a total juxtaposition to 2001 at the BFI IMAX. as I have heard someone say before, 2001 is about outer space whereas Solaris is about inner space, and I couldn't put it better*