Solaris (1972)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
It’s been suggested that a spy flick starring Donatas Banionis motivated Russia’s current overlord to begin his career in intelligence; one wonders what kind of work Banionis has inspired as Kris Kelvin in Solaris, Tarkovsky’s adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s sci-fi novel. When Kelvin, a psychologist, is sent to a space station orbiting the watery titular planet, he finds a boggled when not suicidal crew, and the manifestations of his colleagues’ dreams wandering about, personified. Kelvin’s own departed wife soon turns up. Tarkovsky disliked 2001, and outer space is relegated to being an extra here, while the astronauts’ quarters all have padded walls. It would be comforting to think a class of mental health professionals resulted, if the cures on offer in the film didn’t include escape pods and poison deaths. Elina Mishuris (July 10, 7pm at the Museum of Arts and Design’s Tarkovsky series)