Monday, October 25, 2010


The film Solaris (1972) is a slow paced film directed by Russian cinematic genius Andrei Tarkovski. However, many patient viewers get rewarded at the end, final sequence of the film. This mind bending and poetic film is composed of many long slow panning shots, lingering images and seamless editing techniques, which allow the audience to meditate. In the beginning of the film, the main character Kelvin meditates a lot by walking on his family ranch. The camera shows gorgeous images of planet (foggy flower field, green algae waving around under a moving stream), earth, which Kelvin and all other human beings belong to. The film has retro or nostalgic feel due to display of various colors like warn burnt sienna and green. As for the ending, the camera goes back to the beginning of the film; Kelvin walking on his ranch once again. However, in this slowing moving film, which lasts about three hours, the last six minutes come as a shock. With a few long shots and reverse shots, the camera reveals that Kelvin is not in a place (in his home) where he is suppose to be in. Tarkovski shocks the viewers with his perfect control of his camera, slowly reveals an ambiguous image of some kind of contact as well as showing perfect isolation of a human being (Kelvin in the film).