Solaris (2002)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
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What critics say influenced Solaris
Perhaps even more than Tarkovsky's film, Soderbergh's feels like a purely formal exercise, a visual and philosophical voyage (in the obvious vein of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" ) that begins and ends at the same point, our own planet, which turns out to be no more "real," no less rich and strange, than Solaris itself.
The movie bears a stronger resemblance to 2001: A Space Odyssey than to Star Wars , with an emphasis on ideas over action.
Solaris bears a closer resemblance to 2001: A Space Odyssey than it does to Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
The film it most resembles is Kubrick's masterful 2001: A Space Odyssey, both in its majestic, sweeping vision of a spaceship-bound catastrophe and its slow, measured story pacing.
This idea of reanimating the dead takes on metaphorical as well as literal shape, in part because Soderbergh appears to be reviving the sort of epic, thought-provoking science fiction exemplified by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
The look of the film is derivative of the sci-fi classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" (without HAL) and "The Shining" with its brightly metallic, otherworldly sets and long, quiet takes of the actors looking thoughtful or distressed.
(In fairness, some were heard to condemn the film on the grounds that it 'rips off' Event Horizon and Sphere, even though Lem's book predates both of those pictures by several years.)
Purportedly the Russian answer to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," the film was pretentious and dreadfully slow but nevertheless intriguing and went on to inspire the likes of the similarly themed "Event Horizon."
Sci-fi followers will quickly recognize the plot, taken from Stanislaw Lem's novel, since it's been unofficially borrowed for many other films (most notably the 1997 thriller "Event Horizon," which gave it a gruesome twist) and TV shows.
While several of the plot conceits have been seen over the years ("Event Horizon" being a prime example), Soderbergh makes them seem fresh and intriguing by focusing on the character relationships rather than the special effects.
(See "Traffic," where supernal cinematic art was deployed to send the message that Drugs Are Bad.) On one hand, it seems remarkable, even outlandish, that the same director who remade the Rat Pack caper flick "Ocean's Eleven" would go on to make a new version of Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris," a languorous, Soviet-made art film that (like most of Tarkovsky's work) pushes at the outer edges of philosophical abstraction.
Solaris is based on the novel by Stanisalw Lem, which was first brought to the screen in 1972 by Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
If you haven't seen Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 SF masterpiece Solaris, can't see it Friday night, November 29, on Turner Movie Classics, and don't want to watch the just-released DVD or wait for the Music Box's rerelease in January, you might find Steven Soderbergh's remake intriguing and compelling, because the story it tells is certainly haunting.
Solaris is a remake of Russian director Andrei Tarkovksy's 1972 film.
His daring new project, Solaris, is a dead-serious, big-budget remake of the fabled 1972 art film by the late Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
In its mind-boggling sci-fi beauty, it's closer to the heavenly apparitions of Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm than it is to Tarkovsky's source material.
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Finding each other on "Out Of Sight" is the best thing either of them has done.
With the divergent "Ocean's Eleven," "Traffic," "Erin Brockovich" and "Out of Sight" on his recent rsum, the writer-director now turns to a remake of the Russian science-fiction classic, directed by celebrated Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972.
Those who saw the stirrings of a Serious Actor in O Brother Where Art Thou and Out Of Sight will be pleased to see Clooney leap yet again to a new level of dexterity, poise, nuance and restraint.
The way the director shoots it all, catching the glances, the smiles, and the ugly moments as well, is reminiscent of the magic he brought to Out of Sight years ago.
The maverick director of Traffic and Out of Sight doesn't shy away from challenges, and even when he fails, you can sense him planning for his next run at the hill.
Out of Sight and Traffic contained a wide variety of film stocks and filters, while The Limey and The Underneath played around with time.
Ms. Davis, whose work I'm not as familiar with, is also fast becoming part of Team Soderbergh herself, this also being their third film working together on after "Out Of Sight" and "Traffic."
With the divergent "Ocean's Eleven," "Traffic," "Erin Brockovich" and "Out of Sight" on his recent rsum, the writer-director now turns to a remake of the Russian science-fiction classic, directed by celebrated Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972.
The maverick director of Traffic and Out of Sight doesn't shy away from challenges, and even when he fails, you can sense him planning for his next run at the hill.
Out of Sight and Traffic contained a wide variety of film stocks and filters, while The Limey and The Underneath played around with time.
With Solaris the diverse and talented director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Out of Sight) has commendably tackled the philosophical potential of the science fiction genre.
Soderbergh excels on a grander scale (the sex scene with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, the epic parallels of Traffic, even the pop spectacle of Ocean's Eleven), but when his artistic pretensions guide his filmmaking, disaster strikes (Kafka, Schizopolis, Full Frontal).
In truth, it's Soderbergh's first beautiful film, fulfilling the pockets of resplendence found in Kafka and Traffic.
Such was the state of his two protagonists in Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Steven Soderbergh's best film since sex, lies, and videotape (and the film most like it in theme and execution), Solaris is a moving, hypnotic adaptation of the classic Stanislaw Lem novel, which was first made into a film in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky.
Soderbergh excels on a grander scale (the sex scene with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, the epic parallels of Traffic, even the pop spectacle of Ocean's Eleven), but when his artistic pretensions guide his filmmaking, disaster strikes (Kafka, Schizopolis, Full Frontal).
He wrote none of the screenplays for his seven subsequent films, and though he did pen the upcoming Solaris adaptation, the guiding hands of Stanislaw Lem and Andrei Tarkovsky loom large in that endeavor.
(See "Traffic," where supernal cinematic art was deployed to send the message that Drugs Are Bad.) On one hand, it seems remarkable, even outlandish, that the same director who remade the Rat Pack caper flick "Ocean's Eleven" would go on to make a new version of Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris," a languorous, Soviet-made art film that (like most of Tarkovsky's work) pushes at the outer edges of philosophical abstraction.
Last year, the filmmaker had a hit with the glossily entertaining all-star ensemble Ocean's Eleven.
With the divergent "Ocean's Eleven," "Traffic," "Erin Brockovich" and "Out of Sight" on his recent rsum, the writer-director now turns to a remake of the Russian science-fiction classic, directed by celebrated Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972.
And for a while there, the film undeniably does feel like a carbon copy of Ocean's Eleven - complete with introductory sequences for each of the characters.
Since then, two of his best films have been Out of Sight and Ocean's Eleven.
Soderbergh excels on a grander scale (the sex scene with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, the epic parallels of Traffic, even the pop spectacle of Ocean's Eleven), but when his artistic pretensions guide his filmmaking, disaster strikes (Kafka, Schizopolis, Full Frontal).
Out of Sight and Traffic contained a wide variety of film stocks and filters, while The Limey and The Underneath played around with time.
The wunderkind director who brought us such varied successes as "sex, lies and videotape", "Out of Sight", "The Limey" and "Traffic" is a solid, proven filmmaker.
These are handled in the crisply disjunctive manner he stole from John Boorman and Alain Resnais for The Limey, with straight cuts to quick shots raising brief uncertainties about where and when some event is taking place.
He's certainly come close, and over that celebrated four-picture run -- Out of Sight, The Limey, the Oscar-duellers Erin Brockovich and Traffic -- earned himself a rep as the hottest helmsman in studio-land, king of the high middle ground.
In the past four years alone, we've had amusingly twisty ("Out of Sight"), dark revenge ("The Limey"), peppy determinism ( "Erin Brockovich" ), gritty realism ( "Traffic" ) caper comedy ( "Ocean's Eleven" ) and improvised tedium ( "Full Frontal" ).
The heretofore cryptic but apparently linear structure twists into time-jumping ellipses (not so brilliantly as Soderbergh's The Limey, but reminiscent of it).
The whole set is dull-o-rama and makes Aliens look like Moulin Rouge in comparison.
Co-produced by James Cameron's company Lightstorm, Solaris fits loosely into Ridley Scott's Alien future with its monolithic "Company" and the need for a specialist to infiltrate a corrupted interstellar outpost--a future Cameron plumbed in 1986 with his modern genre classic Aliens .
If “Solaris” shares anything with a Cameron production, it’s the relentless claustrophobia of “Aliens” — here applied to Chris’s crumbling psyche via Clooney’s jittery, guilt-addled performance and a Dylan Thomas poem motif.
Most of the crew has disappeared, as if the beast from ''Alien'' had already been through and eaten dinner.
After all, it had James ‘Titanic’ Cameron’s name on it (he’s the producer) – surely it was bound to be an action-packed effects bonanza?
Some people might be looking for a Titanic in the sky, what with James Cameron being a producer, but Solaris is an epic of the emotions, not the planets.
We are thankful that Soderbergh convinced James Cameron ("Titanic") who owned the rights to this property and intended to direct it, to allow him to take it on.
Sci-fi buffs, enthused by Camerons return to the genre that he revolutionized, were put off by the utter lack of futuristic hardware, those hoping for the "Titanic"-style romance promised in some of the ads were alienated by the emotionally reticent tone and cinephiles were offended by what they saw as Soderberghs nerve in even attempting a remake of Andrei Tarkovskys 1972 epic (a film generally held in higher regard than, say, "Oceans Eleven") in the first place.
Co-produced by James Cameron's company Lightstorm, Solaris fits loosely into Ridley Scott's Alien future with its monolithic "Company" and the need for a specialist to infiltrate a corrupted interstellar outpost--a future Cameron plumbed in 1986 with his modern genre classic Aliens .
Most of the crew has disappeared, as if the beast from ''Alien'' had already been through and eaten dinner.
He seems glued to a mood; his notion of reality consists mainly of dank urban rain and gloomy interiors out of Blade Runner, and his sense of outer space is strictly 2001.
Working with his longtime production designer Philip Messina (who recently did "8 Mile"), Soderbergh has created an unobtrusive yet convincing futuristic look, sleek, rainy and lived in, that seems to echo "Blade Runner" while carving out territory of its own.
But it's been a good long while since there's been a sci-fi flick that's more internal than anything else; those looking for a Star Wars-type adventure will be deeply disappointed.
But it may not be for sci-fi fans who crave Star Wars-like adventures or Alien-esque thrills.
Fans of quick-edit, CGI-effected fluff like Terminator 2 or even the pyrotechnics of Star Wars are bound to be twiddling their thumbs waiting for SOLARIS' end credits.
Since "Star Wars" brought the genre to the masses, most everyone now associates sci-fi with special effects and action-laden fantasy stories.
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Based on a novel by iconoclastic Polish writer Stanislaw Lem and made at a length (two hours and 45 minutes) that enraptured partisans while boring detractors, the original "Solaris" was a challenging, philosophical film that played like "Forbidden Planet" filtered through the dark agonies of the Russian soul.
Also, he has been quoted as saying his version of Solaris would be a cross between Last Tango in Paris and Stanley Kubrick's 2001.