Where to watch Solaris (1972)

Trivia & production notes

• Tarkovsky decided to adapt Solaris partly out of financial necessity, as his previous film Andrei Rublev had never been released and another screenplay of his had been rejected.
• In a 1970 interview, Tarkovsky criticized Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as phoney and lifeless, viewing it as representative of science fiction's shallow focus on technology rather than emotional depth.
• Stanisław Lem became furious when he saw the first screenplay, which drastically altered his novel by devoting two-thirds of the story to events on Earth.
• The space station interior is decorated with reproductions of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1565 painting series The Months, anchoring the futuristic setting in Old Master art.
• Tarkovsky initially considered casting his ex-wife Irma Raush as Hari but changed his mind after meeting Bibi Andersson in June 1970; ultimately Natalya Bondarchuk won the role after impressing him in another director's film.
• Cinematographer Vadim Yusov and Tarkovsky quarreled so intensely during filming that they never worked together again despite having collaborated on his previous films.
• The production had to specially procure Eastman Kodak color film from abroad since it was not widely available in the Soviet Union.
• The Solaris ocean effect was created using acetone, aluminium powder, and dyes rather than conventional water or models.
• Scenes of a spacecraft traversing a futuristic city were filmed on location in Tokyo in September and October 1971 at Akasaka and Iikura.
• Akira Kurosawa visited the Mosfilm studios during production and praised the design of the space station.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Solaris (1972 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.