It’s four-thirty in the morning and I’m an hour and ten minutes into Solaris. What I first must note about this movie is just how fast the first hour has passed me by, a level of engagement that’s surprising when considering the films I’ve either enjoyed or endured as of late; the ones I consider more as a challenge to watch and almost on par with reading a book, so to speak, with my attention span being as fleeting as it is these days…
Succeeding 2001: A Space Odyssey in the timing of its release, a matured Tarkovsky feature about space travel was always going to be incredible. I don’t know if I’m the ignorant one for not having seen it before, or if it’s genuinely just slept on, but the focus on the destination rather than exploration itself is made very clear and it wastes no time throwing you into a claustrophobic, mind-bending fray as a psychologist tries to reason with the two ‘human’ passengers inhabiting Solaris’ space station.
It’s clear to me that both Moon and Interstellar derived some influence from this movie and if Interstellar is a modernized version of A Space Odyssey, I’d say that Moon is a poor man’s adaptation of Solaris, with the fixation upon psychological absurdities and scientifically paranormal activity being central throughout what I’ve viewed so far. These last three or so paragraphs were so fucking easy to write, too, so I’ll return when I’ve completed it, as is the usual syntactic tactic I so tacitly employ when rambling on this self-indulgent blogroll that for some reason has amassed some semblance of a cult following.
Whether you’re laughing at me or not whilst reading this, I truly appreciate the traffic. Thank you. Something else I wanted to make note of is how the more horror-related elements reminded me of the hallucinatory alienation featured in Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), so maybe there was some artistic warfare/licensing at play between the two prolific directors at this point in history. Either way, it’s got me typing impulsively without having to force my hand and that’s good enough for me. I’m really going to go watch it until its conclusion now, I swore…
With aching eyes, I’ve reached the two-hour ten-minute mark and it turns out I’ve lied once again, with the necessity of noting just how incomprehensibly well Solaris blends immortality, divinity, delusions, the human condition, science, and what could possibly be the powers of a higher, sentient force being like no other film I’ve seen. It doesn’t go too far for the horror angle, or anything else that sensational. But it sure as shit is mind-warping.
I have no idea how on earth I wasn’t made aware of this film sooner, but it makes The Shining look like child’s play. Stephen King would be happy and so would the leading lady of Kubrick’s dissemination of the novel – judging by how she was treated on set. It’s 6 am now, but I’d like this to be finished with the movie entirely fresh in my mind.
As far as the protagonist goes, he is personified so little that the film becomes all the more relatable on an existential, personable level and quite frankly, it’s a Gatling gun of philosophical/spiritual shots to one’s perceptions of the unknown, or what should remain unknown to the collective consciousness of humanity.
The platitudes Solaris reaches for and accomplishes are beyond that of my own immediate understanding or comprehension to even beg many questions. This is some next-level shit and maybe the director’s magnum opus but even before reaching its ending I’m almost at a loss for words, the disputes between ‘human’ characters regarding the immortalized, unrelenting reincarnations of the protagonist’s loved ones are so articulately presented and it will always remain inaccessible to the masses.
Will I watch it again? Yeah, after doing my due diligence and fucking research. It’s now 7:30 am and I’m in enduring an unanticipated, ranting existential crisis…
Uhhh, try and watch this film. Good luck – from yours truly, the emissary of understanding exactly how little we’ll ever understand. One love, I think?
Sedlo