Solaris

UPC: 715515083614

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Adult Situations, Questionable for Children]

Summary: Based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, Solaris centers on widowed psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donata Banionis), who is sent to a space station orbiting a water-dominated planet called Solaris to investigate the mysterious death of a doctor, as well as the mental problems plaguing the dwindling number of cosmonauts on the station. Finding the remaining crew to be behaving oddly and aloof, Kelvin is more than surprised when he meets his seven-years-dead wife Khari (Natalya Bondarchuk) on the station. It quickly becomes apparent that Solaris possesses something that brings out repressed memories and obsessions within the cosmonauts on the space station, leaving Kelvin to question his perception of reality. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, Solaris was remade by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: Special Jury Grand Prix – Cannes Film Festival Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: Disc 1
Audio Commentary by Andrei Tarkovsky Scholars Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie

Disc Two

Nine Deleted and Alternate Scenes
Video Interviews with Actress Natalya Bondarchuk, Cinematographer Vadim Yusov, Art Director Mikhail Romadin, and Composer Eduard Artemyev

Excerpt from a Documentary about Stanislaw Lem, the Author of the Film's source novel

Plus: a Booklet featuring an Essay by Critic Phillip Lopate and an Appreciation by Director Akira Kurosawa

Solaris

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/24/2011

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 166 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) Russian

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Solaris: The Film
1. Opening Credits [3:09]
2. Part One [8:14]
3. Berton's Interrogation [6:31]
4. A Floating Object [3:05]
5. The Scientists' Debate [5:13]
6. Family Relations [2:23]
7. The Truth [4:48]
8. City of the Future [4:54]
9. Bonfire [4:48]
10. Liftoff [2:26]
11. Solaris [6:08]
12. Gibarian's Message [5:47]
13. Sartorius [6:52]
14. Snaut [7:36]
15. Kris's Visitor [7:15]
16. Part Two [2:57]
17. Contact [4:56]
18. Hari II [:00]
19. "The Door Opens the Other Way" [3:40]
20. Sartorius's Laboratory [3:53]
21. Home Movie [4:16]
22. An Encephalogram [5:27]
23. Hari's Story [5:11]
24. The Library [5:39]
25. The Hunters in the Snow [12:55]
26. Thirty Seconds of Weightlessness [3:33]
27. Liquid Oxygen [2:26]
28. "I'm Afraid" [7:22]
29. Kris's Wounds [5:32]
30. Letter from Hari [6:13]
31. The Meaning of Life [3:37]
32. The House [3:49]
1. Tarkovsky's Collaborators [3:09]
2. Donatas Banionis [8:14]
3. The Soviet Film Bureaucracy [6:31]
4. The Issue of Special Effects [3:05]
5. Narrative Consistency [5:13]
6. Tarkovsky and His Parents [2:23]
7. Moral Knowledge [4:48]
8. Russian and Western Audiences [4:54]
9. Clues [4:48]
10. Stanislaw Lem's Novel [2:26]
11. Yuri Yarvet [6:08]
12. The Sets: Kris's and Gibarian's Rooms [5:47]
13. Sculpted Time [6:52]
14. Sos Sarkisian [7:36]
15. Elliptical Shorthand [7:15]
16. Kris's Reasons [2:57]
17. How Could Hari Know? [4:56]
18. "Islands of Memory" [:00]
19. The Ocean's Motives [3:40]
20. Hari's Humanity [3:53]
21. A Dysfunctional Family [4:16]
22. Color and Texture [5:27]
23. Natalya Bondarchuk [5:11]
24. Western Culture [5:39]
25. Bach and Breughel [12:55]
26. Levitation as Motif [3:33]
27. Hari's Writing [2:26]
28. Solaris as Science Fiction [7:22]
29. Ambiguity [5:32]
30. Film Stocks [6:13]
31. Big Issues [3:37]
32. Questions and Possible Answers [3:49]

Lucia Bozzola

Conceived partly as the anti-2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972) weaves a hypnotic fable about love, humanity, and memory out of its science fiction premise. Reinstating the detritus of everyday existence absent from 2001's future vision, Tarkovsky's tracking shots and long takes reveal the space station's claustrophobia and decay; the beautiful early images of nature further underline the ugly, dehumanizing effects of technology. Shifts between color and black-and-white, an enticingly old-fashioned space station library, and the evocatively ambiguous ending interweave past and present, as pragmatist Kelvin's re-acquaintance with his dead wife, Khari, suggests the dramatic stakes of trying to erase the past . Regardless of the political message that could be inferred regarding the Soviet bureaucracy, Solaris was the rare Tarkovsky film that avoided extensive mandated edits and received a relatively normal U.S.S.R. release; it was, however, cut by 35 minutes by the American distributor in 1976. Restored to its original length in 1990, Solaris has garnered more and more fans for its cerebral yet rapturous inquiry into what it means to be human. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Eduard Artemyev  Composer (Music Score) 
Andrei Tarkovsky  Director 
Andrei Tarkovsky  Screenwriter 
Fridrikh Gorenshtein  Screenwriter 
Natalya Bondarchuk  Actor 
Jüri Järvet  Actor 
Donatas Banionis  Actor 
Anatoli Solonitsin  Actor 
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky  Actor 
Nikolai Grinko  Actor 
Sos Sarkisyan  Actor 
Tamara Ogorodnikova  Actor 

Country: USSR