A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
Direction
Tarkovsky's 10-minute highway sequence is cinema meditation.
Cinematography
Bleach-bypass Soviet film stock that looks like haunted memory.
Acting
Bondarchuk's Hari: not human, becoming human, devastating.
Director
Andrei Tarkovsky
Natalya Bondarchuk
Hari
Donatas Banionis
Kris Kelvin
Jüri Järvet
Dr. Snaut
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
Henri Berton
Mykola Hrynko
Kelvin's Father
Anatoliy Solonitsyn
Dr. Sartorius
Olga Barnet
Kelvin's Mother
Aleksandr Misharin
Shanahan, Chairman of the Anri Berton Commission
Tamara Ogorodnikova
Anna
Sos Sargsyan
Dr. Gibarian
Yulian Semyonov
Chairman of the Scientific Conference
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tarkovsky and Lem fought constantly; Lem wanted hard sci-fi, Tarkovsky wanted 'love in space.' The highway scene was Tarkovsky's deliberate 'anti-2001' middle finger to Kubrick's sterile futurism.
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