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A near appreciation of Solaris

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Mates,

I saw Tarkovsky's Solaris years ago and then again recently since the Soderbergh remake has revived interest.

The problem for me with Tarkovsky was simply language. Solaris seems so psychological and intellectual, so inward, I can't imagine that the movie in Russian can get enough across to an English speaker. The reading of subtitles is too distracting from the images and the emotional depiction. I had seen The Magic Flute a dozen times before seeing a performance in the W.H. Auden translation and it opened a different, wider door. It made it possible to focus attention on the action and the nuance of dialogue and aria.

I always wanted to like the Tarkovsky Solaris because the amazing visual skill alone signals great film-making, but it was frankly lifeless to me in Russian. From it, I am intrigued enough to want to read the Lem novel, but I think that this is a case of the extreme difficulty of taking a very psychological novel to screen. Anyone seen a great film version of "Ulysses?"

I have not seen the Soderbergh and want to read Lem first.


Cheers,

Bambi B


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