Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on May 12, 2008 at 01:23:25

In Reply to: RE: Fresh Musings on Kubrick’s Monument for the Ages: 2001 posted by halfnote on May 11, 2008 at 21:30:13

I'm in Australia and local DVD releases here are a different region to the US, and in PAL rather than NTSC. The PAL version of "Solaris" which I have does have a dubbed soundtrack. Check DVD Beaver for comparison reviews of different releases of Solaris as they indicate what soundtracks are available.

Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is a very different film to "2001" with very different themes but it, also, is slow moving. I sometimes find the pace of "2001" more of an issue for me than that of "Solaris" but others have more problems with "Solaris". Tarkovski's film is more intellectual than Kubrick's in my view, and Kubrick's more visually memorable.

Soderberg's "Solaris" is not a remake so much as a different take on the original novel which I have not read so I can't say which is closest. I don't think it's not a bad film and if I hadn't been so moved and impressed by Tarkovsky's which I first saw a couple of years after it's release and which has haunted me ever since, I think it might have impressed me more but my vision of the story has been permanently conditioned by the Tarkovsky film and it would take an even greater version of the story to make me switch allegiances. Soderberg's film isn't good enough to grab me that strongly. It's certainly shorter and faster paced so it's probably an easier film to view for many. I think George Clooney's performance in it is quite good.


David Aiken