Desire Avenue

Its the summer.....almost....so its time for the tv companies to fill the schedules with crappy tv progs........well,even more crappier tv progs than normal anyway.
Not only that i've now got sh@*ty football matches to avoid so these past few days i've been diving into my dvd collection to pull out a film to sit back and enjoy.

The other evening it was Solaris,a sub-2001 Sci-Fi chiller.
Astronaut George Clooney is requested by an old friend to journey out to space station,which is orbiting the planet/being Solaris.

The crew members have been acting strangely after being visited on board by people from their past. George Clooney's dead wife turns upwithin hours of him boarding.

I won't spoil things by revealing any more of the plot .
Its a very strange,slow moving,atmospheric film (the type of film that i like....'Is-Slottet, Driftwood,Gattaca etc ) with little in the way of 'action'.......its about as far away from 'Star Wars' as you can get.

Anyone else seen it or the original Russian version it was based on?

Also,if anyone could do me a copy of the beautifully hypnotic soundtrack album,please PM me. Thanks.

Rob,I sent you a copy of the S/T about a year ago!!!!
I haven't seen the US remake but the original Tarkovsky film made in the 60s is one of my favourite films (which is why I resist watching the Hollywood version).But I heard the S/T,and it's great.Done by an ex-musician of Captain Beefheart's,enough recommendaton for me.

'Solaris' is such a beautiful film, I was so taken aback by how much it affected me. I'm not normally a great one for anything sci-fi at all, but I'd say that aspect of the film is almost incidental, strangely. It's a story about memory, identity, the power of obsession to both enrich and negate a life, what actually constitutes existence. It all just happens to be set in the near-ish future, when people are able to live and travel in space as a matter of course.

I love the look of the film; this is one area where sci-fi films often end up being off-putting, for me. But the world and human life going on in it feel familiar in this movie, albeit altered in subtle ways that are in line with things we already know now about how the climate and technology etc will change in the next hundred years or so. I love how it's constantly raining in the scenes on earth, for instance - the people are all going about their normal business, no-one is bothered or sheltering or inappropriately dressed, so you know it's just how the weather always is. The representations of contemporary technology are very convincing too, nothing is over the top or obviously made-up.

The depiction of Solaris itself is stunningly beautiful.

sound world wrote:Rob,I sent you a copy of the S/T about a year ago!!!!

Dave,
a smilie from me too!
Did I ever acknowledge receipt of it as I have absolutely no memory of it at all?
Old age,brain cells dying,memory going blah blah blah etc

Was it on cd-r or tape do you know and was there anything else on with it?
I'm going to go through all my stuff now to see if i can locate it.

elizabeth wrote:It's a story about memory, identity, the power of obsession to both enrich and negate a life, what actually constitutes existence.

Beautifully put.

It was a CD-r,RobB.As soon as I heard the s/t I thought 'RobB would like this' which is why I sent it to you.
I've got the original S/T if it doesn't turn up.
I urge you people to see the Tarkovsky original.The space station is so Russian,and all those qualities you spotted,Elizabeth,are there.I believe the Hollywood version was fairly faithful,but the original is the original.It's an extraordinary film.
But so are all Tarkovsky's.I know Elfy is a fan,but everyone should see Andrei Rublev and Stalker as well as Solaris.

sound world wrote:I know Elfy is a fan,but everyone should see Andrei Rublev and Stalker as well as Solaris.

Spot on! Andrei Rublev AND Stalker are 2 masterpieces!
Rob, if you do not report back to us that you have seen both within a month, I will find you and kick your ass!

picsou wrote:Rob, if you do not report back to us that you have seen both within a month, I will find you and kick your ass!

Kick my ass?
I'm glad you can type accurately especially given that K key is next to the L.

I've just been checking out reviews for both films and maybe Stalker looks quite interesting.

RobB wrote: Kick my ass?
I'm glad you can type accurately especially given that K key is next to the L.

At least there was little risk of a typo with the D!

When I saw Stalker the first time, when it came out, it was a revelation, no less. I don't think I realised it completely before a while, as I had not seen that many movies before. But for me, this was the first movie in which the pictures, the images, the photos were of amazing quality. And I don't think I have experienced the same feeling with any other director.

I'll second that.It's also got the most extraordinary atmosphere only found otherwise in ... 'Solaris'.
Picsou you must be an old buffer like me and RobB!

picsou wrote:At least there was little risk of a typo with the D!

I will check out the film........sometime.

sound world wrote: Picsou you must be an old buffer like me and RobB!

Not as old as Rob, actually!
I was 16 when Stalker was first released in Russia, 18 or 19 when I saw the movie.