Chris Kelvin (Donatus Banionis) knows something is not quite right in Russian sci-fi classic
BAMcinématek
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Sunday, November 27, $12, 2:00, 5:30, 9:00
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
www.kino.com
Natalya Bondarchuk and Donatus Banionis star in Solaris, the Russian 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which something strange is going on in outer space that is unexplainable to both the characters in the film and the people in the audience. Banionis plays Chris Kelvin, who is sent to the Solaris space station to decide whether to put an end to the solaristics project that Burton (Vladislav Dvorzhetsky) complicated twenty years before. What he discovers is one death, two possibly insane men, and his supposedly dead wife (Bondarchuk). Ambiguity reigns supreme in this gorgeously shot (in color and black and white by cinematographer Vadim Yusov) and scored (by Eduard Artemyev) film that, while technically science fiction, is really about the human conscience, another gem from master Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Nostalghia). See it whether or not you checked out Steven Soderbergh’s underrated remake with George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. Solaris is screening on November 27 as part of BAMcinématek’s “Sci-Fi Thanksgiving” series, which previously showed, appropriately enough, Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.