Has there ever been a slower film? Whatever vision or theme director Andrei Tarkovsky was trying to convey, almost certainly more viewers would have been exposed to it and possibly mesmerized, if the film had been imbued with a modicum of entertainment value. "Solyaris" has got to be one of the most boring, and pretentious, movies ever made.
Ostensibly a sci-fi film, the first 43 minutes take place in a most mundane, earth-like setting, with visuals that do not in any way suggest anything cosmic or other-worldly. Later, the plot shifts to a spacecraft. But even here, the sets are mundane and unimaginative. They look like what one would see in an episode of Star Trek.
None of the film's characters are remotely interesting. Dialogue and acting are both melodramatic. At times, I thought I was watching a soap opera. The film has absolutely no humor. The overall tone is serious and dour. Background music is funereal and gloomy. The film's first Act is confusing and muddled.
The cinematography has very, very long camera "takes", and is mostly color, but shifts to B&W at odd times, for no apparent reason. Five consecutive minutes are consumed by a car traversing a freeway in Japan (and this is a Russian film?); there's no dialogue in this sequence, nothing but a car moving along through a city, first in daylight, then at night. Nor does the sequence advance the plot in any discernible way. Throughout the film, sound effects are amplified, apparently to keep viewers awake.
With a ponderous and painfully slow plot that runs nearly three hours, no humor, melodramatic dialogue and acting, and an abstruse theme, "Solyaris" comes across not only as tedious and utterly lacking in entertainment value, but also extremely pretentious. For most viewers, I would recommend a pillow or a deck of cards. One should at least be able to get in a lengthy nap or several games of solitaire for having to endure this dreary cinematic ordeal.
Ostensibly a sci-fi film, the first 43 minutes take place in a most mundane, earth-like setting, with visuals that do not in any way suggest anything cosmic or other-worldly. Later, the plot shifts to a spacecraft. But even here, the sets are mundane and unimaginative. They look like what one would see in an episode of Star Trek.
None of the film's characters are remotely interesting. Dialogue and acting are both melodramatic. At times, I thought I was watching a soap opera. The film has absolutely no humor. The overall tone is serious and dour. Background music is funereal and gloomy. The film's first Act is confusing and muddled.
The cinematography has very, very long camera "takes", and is mostly color, but shifts to B&W at odd times, for no apparent reason. Five consecutive minutes are consumed by a car traversing a freeway in Japan (and this is a Russian film?); there's no dialogue in this sequence, nothing but a car moving along through a city, first in daylight, then at night. Nor does the sequence advance the plot in any discernible way. Throughout the film, sound effects are amplified, apparently to keep viewers awake.
With a ponderous and painfully slow plot that runs nearly three hours, no humor, melodramatic dialogue and acting, and an abstruse theme, "Solyaris" comes across not only as tedious and utterly lacking in entertainment value, but also extremely pretentious. For most viewers, I would recommend a pillow or a deck of cards. One should at least be able to get in a lengthy nap or several games of solitaire for having to endure this dreary cinematic ordeal.