The latest film to be screened today as part of the Sculpting Time: Andrei Tarkovsky Retrospective remastered in new digital prints at Spazju Kreattiv is Solaris.
The Russian film master focuses on Solaris, an ocean-covered planet around which a space station orbits. Psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives in order to investigate a series of bizarre occurrences among the crew.
Originally released in 1972, Solaris transcends the normal conventions of the science-fiction genre to instead present an unsettling vision of memory and humanity.
While the film mostly takes place aboard a space station, Tarkovsky also includes a five-minute drive down an urban highway which comes just before the protagonist departs for his space mission.
Commenting on the sequence, scholar Vida Johnson explains: “Tarkovsky knew that in order to situate the story in a foreign place and a distant time, both to fulfil genre requirements and deflect potential censors, he needed to contrast his nostalgia for nature and the past with a city of the future.”
Unable to build such a thing on his limited budget, Tarkovsky filmed in Tokyo.
Solaris is an adaptation of Polish author Stanisław Lem’s 1961 novel with Tarkovsky revisiting the ideas expressed in this film once again in his 1979 Stalker. The film has often been likened to Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey released four years prior. However, film critic Roger Ebert points out that where Kubrick’s work is outward looking, Tarkovsky turns the point of view inwards, towards an examination of human nature.
Ebert goes on to explain that “[Tarkovsky] uses length and depth to slow us down, to edge us out of the velocity of our lives, to enter a zone of reverie and meditation.”
The screening of arthouse, festival and foreign films is a foremost priority in the Spazju Kreattiv cinema programme. Furthermore, the culturally diverse nature of such productions conforms to the strategy of Spazju Kreattiv in promoting different aspects related to the concept of identity, diversity and legacy.
The Tarkovsky screenings are an off-shoot of a major retrospective on the celebrated auteur currently touring a number of cinemas across the UK.
■ Solaris is being screened tonight in its original language with English subtitles at Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta at 7pm. It carries a 12A classification.
For more information, visit www.kreattivita.org.