Review: “Solaris” – Steven Soderbergh – Andrei Tarkovsky

PODCAST:

S4E4M – Solaris (movie)*

SHOW NOTES:

Wherein musicians John Doyle a/k/a Dole (I Decline) and John Bombher a/k/a Jaxon (Bury the Machines, I Klatus) return to join me to discuss the film adaptations of “Solaris.” Dole felt that each of the films had its own strengths and weaknesses, but neither really did it for him. Jaxon mentioned that he found himself multitasking while watching the 2002 film because he was bored, while he felt much more interested in the 1972 version despite its own slow pace and long length. Ryan couldn’t recommend a viewing of the Soderbergh movie, but found himself wholly taken over by the Tarkovsy one. 

Despite our appreciation for the acting efforts in the 2002 Soderbergh version, the three of us ultimately felt that the author’s blind assessment as “love in outer space” was a fair take on this film. We all had a greater appreciation for the 1972 Tarkovsky movie. That said, Dole expressed his frustration with the pacing of the 1972 film and he didn’t feel like it had enough going on to justify this. Ryan acknowledged that the older movie was indisputably slow, but felt it was worth it if you could be in the right frame of mind for a viewing. Jaxon appreciated the production elements in Tarkovsky’s film and he particularly enjoyed the supernatural portrayals of the alien-ocean, which were lacking in the newer movie. 

This episode was recorded in Berwyn, Illinois at Horse-Drawn Productions (where Jaxon sometimes records musicians and where Dole, Jaxon and their two other bandmates (Tony Hopper and Mike Fabiano) in “Theurgy” (Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Theurgy-233634134183768/) recorded new tracks for their forthcoming debut album. They gave me permission to include another teaser from one of their new songs called “Crack of the Egg,” which is about cracking open your mind to new ideas. Listen in for this fun tune of post-punk dark wave at the end of the episode!

-Ryan

 

WRITTEN MOVIE REVIEWS:

“Solaris (2002)” by Steven Soderbergh (George Clooney) (movie)

Ryan: 2 Stars “…Soderbergh focused too much on classic themes of love and somehow didn’t go far enough with advances in technology, reducing the script to a romantic play on a space station–though the actors did well with the material they were given… ”

Dole: 2 Stars “…It really annoyed me that now we are changing the whole story line of what is the whole point of this story into, ‘oh no, it’s us against the alien race’…”

Jaxon: 1 1/2 Stars “…the acting was fine, but the story wasn’t true to the original book at all and if it was gonna stray that far from it–it at least should have been good…”

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“Solaris (1972)” by Andrei Tarkovsky (Donatas Banionis) (movie)

Ryan: 5 Stars “…Tarkovsky’s effort is patient, thought provoking and literary with excellent production in complete complement to the deep questions explored within the source material…”

Dole: 3 Stars “…It’s hard not to compare this film to 2001…but there is not a lot happening…”

Jaxon: 4 Stars “…there are some real slow spots…but I love the art direction, and I love the way that it looked, and I loved that overall theme of…trying to search for something human in something that is not human…”  

 

FUN FACTOIDS:

This episode was recorded at Horse-Drawn Productions a great recording studio located in Berwyn, Illinois near Chicago: “Horse-Drawn Productions is a multi-faceted music company that has existed for over a decade, and includes two commercial state of the art recording studios, an international production company, a complete studio design & construction team, and employs instructors for music, DAW and computer lessons for individuals and groups.” (from www.horse-drawnproductions.com)

Dole and Jaxon are members band “Theurgy.” You can check out rough cuts of their dark wave style music on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/theurgyband/sets/exit-strategies-rough-mixes?fbclid=IwAR13ja8J6euwpSHXAS05aIFnFuKcbd4z18TGWrMu0JK3c_-4vVW8VDBJlxw.

 

Below is a photo from Theurgy’s first official live show on April 14, 2019 at the Underground Lounge in Chi-town:

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Beneath last night’s snowfall in #chitown @theurgy_transmissions played their first official gig. It was a high energy performance! Looking forward to the release of their debut album and many more live shows! Two members of the group (@elyodsean and @burythemachines) joint me on the latest episode of my podcast #NoDeodorantInOuterSpace for an in depth discussion of the 1961 speculative fiction novel #Solaris by #StanislawLem and a preview of one of their new songs – Available now on all major podcatchers including YouTube and our website: www.nodeodorant.com – #chicagolocalmusic #chicagomusicscene #undergroundlounge #Theurgy #newwave #darkwave #darkwavemusic #postpunk #electonicmusic #industrialmusic

A post shared by Ryan Sean O'Reilly (@ryanseanoreilly) on Apr 15, 2019 at 7:51pm PDT

 

During the episode we mentioned the library scene and paintings hanging in the space station that characters live in above Solaris. For a further discussion on this and the film in general take a look at the article “Out of this World” by Jonathon Jones for the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/12/featuresreviews.guardianreview11.

Lastly, here is a trailer for the very first cinematic adaption of “Solaris (1968)” by Boris Nirenburg (Vasily Lanovoy) (TV movie), which was released in Russia:

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.

Advertisement

Preview Episode (Solaris)

PODCAST:

S4E4P – Preview Episode (Solaris)

SUBJECT MATTER:

“Solaris (1961)” by Stanislaw Lem (book)

“When psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds himself confronting a painful memory embodied in the physical likeness of a past lover. Kelvin learns that he is not alone in this and that other crews examining the planet are plagued with their own repressed and newly real memories. Could it be, as Solaris scientists speculate, that the ocean may be a massive neural center creating these memories, for a reason no one can identify?

Long considered a classic, Solaris asks the question: Can we understand the universe around us without first understanding what lies within?” (from Amazon.com)

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“Solaris (2002)” by Steven Soderbergh (George Clooney) (movie)

“A psychologist investigates mysterious happenings aboard a space station in this remake of the Russian sci-fi classic.” (from Amazon.com)

 

 

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“Solaris (1972)” by Andrei Tarkovsky (Donatas Banionis) (movie)

“Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness.” (from Amazon.com)

 

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“Solaris (1968)” by Boris Nirenburg (Vasily Lanovoy) (TV movie) ++bonus film++

“Kris Kelvin joins the space station orbiting the planet Solaris, only to find its two crew members plagued by “phantoms,” creations of Solaris. Kelvin is soon confronted with his own phantom, taking the shape of his dead wife Hari.” (from IMDB.com)

 

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.

Review: Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)

PODCAST:

S3E6M – Stalker (movie)*

SHOW NOTES:

Wow this was a doozy folks. I’ll have to be frank, there was much ramp-up to covering the book from all three hosts. Each of us had a bit of a taste reading “Roadside Picnic” wrapping up the previous episode and had expressed a degree of excitement for our “picnic.” It was definitely a unique piece of work as far as science fiction goes. The characters and mode of storytelling were atypical to say the least. None of us, however, anticipated the esoteric nature of the movie. The movie was so infused with philosophical poetics; I don’t believe one of us was prepared enough to cover it (as the usual last minute protocols appeared to be in effect). All three of us were blindsided by this movie, our reactions to it were quite different. While Ryan and I were compelled to simply tip our caps to it and submit to its expansive and artful script and cinematography, Wilk blasted it back to the USSR and prematurely ended his time on the show after not only ridiculing the movie but Ryan and I for talking about it. Not a pleasant dude sometimes, but not the kind of guy who would stay in his militia bunker somewhere in Michigan while diplomatic efforts are being negotiated between the US and Red Cuba as it would seem to be.

-Rick

WRITTEN FILM REVIEWS:

Film: “Stalker (1979)” by Andrei Tarkovsky (Alexander Kaidanovsky)

Ryan: 4 1/2 Stars “…it did feel a little bit slow at times, but it is really beautifully done…”

Wilk: 1 Stars “…nobody should watch this film…”

Rick: 4 1/2 Stars “…there’s a lot there, [it’s] a treasure, and if you got the time–check it out…”

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FUN FACTOIDS:

On the show Ryan mentioned that this movie contains “long shots,” which we discussed in previous film adaptions of other works. That said, Rick, pointed out that unlike the other films we watched, these “long shots” lacked the dramatic choreographed action sequences that made those other long shots particularly impressive. We discussed this in the episodes on  “Children of Men” by Alfonso Cuaron (Clive Owen) (movie) and “True Detective” by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Matthew McConaughey) (miniseries).

The book “Roadside Picnic” and the movie adaptation “Stalker” also spawned a series of successful first-person-shooter video games made by a Ukrainian developer. More info at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R or official website: http://www.stalker-game.com/en/. Also, here is an article by HalidYusein on GiantBomb.com from February 2016 about the series entitled “The Ashes of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – A Thorough Look at S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and the Legacy of the Franchise” (http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/halidyusein/blog/the-ashes-of-stalker-a-thorough-look-at-stalker-2-/112663/).

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.

Preview Episode (Roadside Picnic)

PODCAST:

S3E6P – Preview Episode (Roadside Picnic)*

SUBJECT MATTER:

Book: “Roadside Picnic (1972)” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

“Amazing. . . . The Strugatskys’ deft and supple handling of loyalty and greed, of friendship and love, of despair and frustration and loneliness [produces] a truly superb tale. . . . You won’t forget it -Theodore Sturgeon Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of the extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty” something goes terribly wrong. . . . First published in 1972 and immediately acclaimed as a science-fiction classic, Roadside Picnic is included on almost every list of the hundred greatest science-fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. It was the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky’s filmic masterpiece Stalker and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games that have proven immensely popular. This brand new translation corrects many of the errors and omissions of the previous one. Finally, one of the greatest science fiction novels-and one of the most popular pieces of Russian fiction-is back in print in an authoritative version. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady died in 1991; Boris lives in St. Petersburg.” (from Amazon.com)

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Film: “Stalker (1979)” by Andrei Tarkovsky (Alexander Kaidanovsky)

“One of Andrei Tarkovsky(Solaris, The Sacrifice) most acclaimed films, Stalker is an unforgettable film experience that evokes the spiritual lucidity of Carl Dreyer and the unbridled imagination of Philip K. Dick. Since its release in 1979, Stalker has inspired filmmakers as diverse as David Lynch and Steven Spielberg and ensnared audiences in a labyrinth of striking imagery revealing the familiar in the strange, the poetic in the disturbing and the mythic in the mordant. In the near future, an unseen alien force has taken possession of an area of Russian wilderness that authorities, have dubbed The Zone. The only thing known for sure about the region is that few who enter it ever return. Led by a Stalker one of a small group of outlaws able to safely navigate the Zone, a renegade scientist and a cynical, burnt out writer penetrate the dangers outside in search of the power and transcendence rumored to exist inside. The Stalker longs to un-do a mysterious physical transformation the Zone has performed on his young daughter. The scientist will risk anything to see that reason triumphs over faith. The writer seeks a germ of inspiration that the crumbling and corrupt world beyond the Zone no longer provides. Together, these three men become desperate pilgrims walking a desolate trail leading to one of the most enigmatic and tantalizing endings in the history of cinema. A haunting and honest meditation on the intersections of science, feeling, and faith.Stalker is both profoundly unsettling and deeply moving.” (from Amazon.com)

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.