Solaris

[coalescent]

I agree with pikelet and greengolux: Solaris is brilliant. This is all the more an impressive feat because the original managed to send me to sleep.

To me, it seems most of all to be about listening: To each other, to ourselves, to the world. You don't see many people talking in this film, but you do see a lot of people listening. Whole conversations take place with the character actually doing the talking offscreen. In fact, the way sound is used in general is interesting; the score music is much more than just a backdrop for the action, it feels somehow involved.

There are many meanings that can be attributed to the film's ending, but I think perhaps that to attempt to do so is to miss the point. From listening follows understanding - or the idea that some things cannot be understood. Some things are genuinely beyond our comprehension, and any meaning we ascribe comes from within us, not without. And I think the film suggests that possibly, maybe such things are more common than we normally realise.

Of course, the genius of the film is that it is about many things. This is just what struck me, this time around.

I think I'll go and read the book, now.

Comments

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

So there wasn't a four and half minute driving scene in this one? Nice to hear some good comments about it. Perhaps I should go see it on the big screen before it comes out on DVD, which I will inevitably buy. The book is good, and the lifeforms on the planet are fascinating. I must dig out more of Lem's work and add it to the reading pile (currently 1,768 books deep).0

Oh, ignore my original comments then. :-(

[applez.livejournal.com]

Oh so much milquetoast am I. ;-p

---

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

To me, it seems most of all to be about listening: To each other, to ourselves, to the world. You don't see many people talking in this film, but you do see a lot of people listening. Whole conversations take place with the character actually doing the talking offscreen. In fact, the way sound is used in general is interesting; the score music is much more than just a backdrop for the action, it feels somehow involved.

I thought this was very striking too. It added to the overall stillness of the film; you didn't see the action, the conversation, but instead you saw a motionless shot of a character listening or remembering (and I think it's as much about remembering as it is about listening; maybe remembering means listening to the past).

Overall, the sound and pictures were edited together in a very unusual way. I'm not sure the music would be that powerful on its own, but combined with the visuals, I agree, it became something else, something that managed to described and complemented what the viewer was seeing.

Soderbergh is very talented when it comes to the technicalities of film making, and it's the care and attention he pays to things like this that I thought made Solaris brilliant.