Wednesday 8 January 2014

Film: Solaris (1972)

Tonight, I went to see the 1972, Russian, film version of Solaris, showing tonight only, in the Prince Charles Cinema. The lobby was crowded, as was the screen, but it's a large one, and I got a decent seat.

Well now. This was remade in 2002, by Steven Soderbergh, and starred George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. Indeed, someone remarked, as we were coming out, that he would never have understood this except for the Steven Soderbergh version. Truly, it does help to have an idea of the story when you go in.

Basically, the crew of a space station seem to have gone ga-ga, and someone is sent to investigate. When he gets there, however, he is plunged into a strange world of visitations by beings that shouldn't be there - such as his dead wife. It turns out that the planet has some sort of intelligence, and is creating these beings from the thought patterns of the scientists onboard the ship.

Ooh, freaky!

It's deeply cerebral, dealing, as it does, with the scientists' lack of connection with their inner selves, if you will, or with their humanity. Apparently, the original book also dealt with the idea of lack of communication between human and non-human species, but the filmmakers obviously decided that was a step too far for audiences and left it at the aforementioned, concentrating on the relationship between this freaked-out scientist and the recreation of his dead wife, who doesn't know who or what she really is.

It is fascinating, although I nearly fell asleep during the long exposition at the start. Too many late nights blogging! Things picked up once the dead woman appeared.

Films in my local cinema again for the next two nights - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty tomorrow, and 12 Years a Slave on Friday, which is the earliest I could get to it. This is a terrific time to go to the cinema, with awards season upon us and all the good ones released. So you should find that the quality of films in your local mainstream cinema greatly increases for the moment. On Saturday though, I'm taking a break from films for the day and heading to the matinee of From Morning to Midnight, showing at the National Theatre. It's quite a while since I've been there. Plenty of ticket agents are carrying tickets for this, but if you're not fussy where you sit, you're better off booking through the venue direct - that's where I found the cheapest tickets. Possibly other vendors offer good deals for top-price seats.

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