fuck man i was expecting to find a lot of good analysis on such a famous movie but there isn’t much out there at all …
as i was sleeping a fairly obvious interpretation sprung to my mind yet no analysis mentions it …
anyway for the time being i’m going to link this video which was pretty good:
started watching this but don’t have time to finish it today:
I read the book…don’t know if the movie went there.
In the book, the planet is alive, creating the…phenomena because…well, because it can. It is a naughty baby.
It is said to be evolved but is at a childlike nascent state so it is experimenting with us, learning, so to speak.
I doubt the movie will go in that direction.
Well, I watched the American remake years ago, but I can barely remember it.
Perhaps this one is better.
OK i finished the second video which is 70 minutes long. It was pretty good but it’s just a discussion - not a real analysis. and the first 6 minute long video is good analysis but definitely doesn’t capture even 20% of what is going on. unfortunately i think those 2 are as good as you will find.
so with that out of the way i will offer my own analysis now …
before i offer my take i want to stress that this is one possible interpretation that sprung to my mind for a number of reasons and the movie is deliberately ambiguous to be open to multiple interpretations …
but my interpretation is that “Solaris” is actually a purgatory …
Tarkovsky was a deeply religious director working in an Authoritarian country which PROHIBITED religion …
He had to find a way to put god into his films without any mentioning of god …
If you think about it - what is Solaris ? A cosmic level intelligence capable of manifesting anything it pleases into reality … if this isn’t a god then it’s pretty fucking close !
but instead of just doing anything it wants it projects your own thoughts back at you but not just any thoughts - specifically your guilty conscience.
Chris Kelvin’s friend commits suicide before Chris arrives and in his video message he says he committed suicide because of guilt / shame brought about by Solaris’s apparitions / visitors …
When Chris Kelvin himself begins to experience these " visitors " he is also tormented and states that it must be some kind of punishment …
Solaris thus represents divine judgement that uses your own conscience to judge you for your sins …
furthermore all attempts to fight it are futile … when the astronauts blast Solaris with X-rays in attempt to make it behave ( even after the pilot warned them not to do so ) Solaris pretends to relent …
but actually sucks Kelvin even deeper into the nightmare in which he will potentially spend all eternity answering for his sins by constantly having to face all the wrong he has done …
obviously there is a lot more to the movie than that but at the core level i think this is what is going on …
i was going to ask for @marlon take on this but it’s a 3 hour movie that is already very slow and then to add insult to injury it is based on a book he already read, so i am not going to insist that he watch it …
in any case i am content to leave the analysis at that - what i wrote myself plus the two videos i posted above.
i do not think we are obligated to fully dissect this film. i think we are obligated to reflect on it and that we ( me and the two videos ) did.
now we can move on, unless @marlon wants to watch it.
one more thing came to mind after i wrote the above post … there are many deaths in the movie but ALL OF THEM are by suicide, except one which is of somebody who has previously committed suicide but was brought back to live only to be killed, brought back again and commit suicide again …
i think this is fairly unique in itself and i’m not sure how Tarkovsky reconciles this with his religious beliefs …
anyway as i said in my review this is real art. you don’t have to like it and i’m not sure if it can be understood but i am fairly confident that this is art.