Solaris

... is recommended, but only if your idea of SF goes beyond the likes of "Star Wars" and "Back to the Future" This is actually a film review

Strange things happen on board a space station near Solaris. Dr. Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, is sent as a last attempt to save the mission, or at least to bringthe crew safely back. What he experiences defies conventional reality. His dead wife comes to life, just like each crewmember has had a visitor, someone loveddeeply, from the past — in the flesh, re-created from thought. Back on earth, Kelvin’s wife had committed suicide, but they were intensely in love earlier. He wants to bring the re-incarnation back to earth with him as an attemptto undo the misunderstandings that had lead to their separation, much to Dr.Gordon’saversion. But his wife comes to know that she’s only a mental projection of thepast, and decides to kill herself. But you cannot physically dematerialize a thought. So after her failed attempt at suicide by consuming copious amounts of liquid oxygenshe seeks the aid of Gordon, who tries a previously untried technique (alright,we’re talking particle physics of the future here!), and succeeds. Though Gordon returns to earth, Kris Kelvin decides to stay back in the spaceship, and become a part ofSolaris “ where ”death shall have no dominion”.

The subject matter, based on the book by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, is complex.To make a film out of it, especially in a commercial framework, is definitely difficult. Soderbergh (Sex Lies and Videotape, Traffic) deserves a lot of credit for that. The setsare excellent and the music occasionally compelling and always, original. His techniqueof using too many drastic cuts, especially in the beginning, didn’t click with me. HoweverI liked his chronology disorienting narrative, something the theme requires. I just wonder what the dreamlike sequences could have blossomed into in the hands ofa master — one reason why I can’t wait to see the 1972 Russian original by Tarkovsky (no I haven’t seen any other work of his). No amount of money and technology alone is enough to create a piece of art. Think of the sequences Ray creates in "Charulata" (1964) out of probably decrepit Calcutta studio equipment. What images! And here with the latest technology and a massive budget, what we have is slightly above mediocre. Visually, it’s a lame comparison to 2001: A Space Odyssey- Kubrick’s superlative piece of work.But this is much subtler and mature than the Matrix — a reason why it might bomb at the box office, at least initially. George Clooney fits the bill, though it would have made little difference if any lesser known face was used.

But here’s something that makes one think. Its about existence, reality and dream. How often do we even try to comprehend a realm beyond the three dimensional world of perception made real by the senses? Our lifetimes pass like a dream — the physical merely being a manifestation something greater, materializing of matter from the field of the unknown, from the field of pure consciousness. Why a conscious access to such that field is so difficult is beyond the scope of the film at least. But Solaris represents such a field, where we go beyond matter, where there is no death, and where forgiveness is infinite. A Dylan Thomas poem is nicely used to drive home the unreality of death:

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion. Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion. No more may gulls cry at their ears Or waves break loud on the seashores; Where blew a flower may a flower no more Lift its head to the blows of the rain; Though they be mad and dead as nails, Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, And death shall have no dominion.