Solaris (1976)
92%RT Audience Score: 89%
Awards & Nominations: 5 wins & 4 nominations
Solaris is a haunting, meditative film that uses sci-fi to raise complex questions about humanity and existence.
Solaris is like a deep sea dive into the unknown, with its hypnotic pull and enigmatic adventure. Tarkovsky’s speculative visions explore the mysteries of life and death, the power of art, and the dangers of science. It’s a film that challenges and offers few easy answers, but ultimately leaves you feeling like you’ve been on a journey through space and time. And if you’re looking for a slow-moving, seat-squeaking bore, well, you might want to look elsewhere.
Production Company(ies)
Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet Corp. Goodmovies Entertainment,
Distributor
Image Entertainment Inc., Fox Lorber, Criterion Collection
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Akasaka, Minato, Japan
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1972
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:2h 49m
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Language(s):Russian, German
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 20, 1972 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 9, 2003
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $135,289
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,073,792
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,586
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 117,098
US/Canada gross: $22,168
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $175,948
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,564
US/Canada opening weekend: $11,537
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $91,569
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,964
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): RUR 1,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Donatas Banionis – Kris Kelvin
Jüri Järvet – Dr. Snaut
Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy – Berton
Nikolay Grinko – Kelvin’s father
Anatoliy Solonitsyn – Dr. Sartorius
Director(s)
Andrei Tarkovsky
Writer(s)
Fridrikh Gorenshteyn, Stanislaw Lem, Andrei Tarkovsky
Producer(s)
Viacheslav Tarasov
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
5 wins & 4 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (5)
The film has a hypnotic pull, drawing the viewer deeper and deeper into its enigmatic adventure by crafting a world all its own.
May 18, 2017
Mark Olsen
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Andrei Tarkovsky’s pacing is less moved by narrative detail than thematic and metaphorical suggestion.
May 6, 2017 | Rating: 2.5/4
Clayton Dillard
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Tarkovsky’s speculative visions enfold the mysteries of death and rebirth, the lost paradise of childhood, the power of art to define identity, the menace of science as destructive vanity …
June 16, 2014
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Proves the yin to Kubrick’s yang, not out of contrarian longing, but because that was the form best suited for the content Tarkovsky wanted to explore.
May 24, 2011 | Rating: 4/4
Rob Humanick
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
The effects are scanty, the drama gloomy, the philosophy of the film thick as a cloud of ozone. The plot is not all that original either.
May 23, 2011
Jay Cocks
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Its discussion of passion and obsession, regret and reconciliation is consistently challenging and offers few easy answers.
May 23, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Solaris exists on several spatial, temporal, and fantastic levels at once.
February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
A scientist-sweating, slow moving, seat-squeaking bore.
June 30, 2021
Ruth Batchelor
Los Angeles Free Press
Ultimately I was really disappointed in Solaris but I am not sorry that I watched it.
April 1, 2021
Sarah Brinks
Battleship Pretension
It’s as if the film is a living, thinking thing: A reflection of what you want when you need it.
August 10, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Michael J. Casey
Boulder Weekly
Perfectly immaculate, using the chilliness of the way the location is framed to offset the profoundly human story being told there.
May 15, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Tim Brayton
Alternate Ending
A profoundly beautiful and disturbing Russian film that reaches far beyond the realms of the future depicted in Kubrick’s 2001.
October 29, 2019
Lucie K. Scheuer
Los Angeles Free Press…
Plot
The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, but the facts are hazy and very secret. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. When he also encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years, he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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