Solaris

My favourite Tomita track may well be "The Sea Named Solaris". I saw the Russian film "Solaris" a few years ago; didn't see the recent American remake.
Can anyone tell me: were the Bach pieces Tomita quotes from in his piece in the soundtrack from the original Solaris film, or did he just think up the thing himself?
I can't remember whether there was a music soundtrack to the film. All I do remember basically is the eerieness of it: a place where time/space doesn't exist and the dead and living can live side-by-side. Somehow Tomita's track conjures up that feeling too...I guess that's what makes it so magical.

 

Three Part Invention No.2 in C Minor, BWV 788
Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639

The original Tarkovsky film uses a the same Bach pieces Tomita performs. It also uses original electronic works by Eduard Artemiev playing the legendary ANS synthesizer. Clearly Tomita was inspired by the film and the music, perhaps he fantasized that the Bach might be arranged differently. In the film the bach for the most part is performed fairly traditionally. Back in 1968 Tomita was already doing Bach arrangements - I think of the very same Bach Invention -for the film "Black Lizard" (by Mishima & "Battle Royale" director Fukusaku).

from IMDB:
The extended scene following Berton as he rides back to the city was filmed in Osaka. Foreign travel was not easily approved, and the reason this long scene was left in the movie was probably to justify that trip for the director and crew. A Japanese city circa 1970 may not look very futuristic to modern audiences, but its impression on Soviet viewers at that time of the film's release was probably quite different. Tarkovski's diary reveals that they just missed the World's Fair, and they may have planned to shoot footage at it that would have looked far more futuristic.

- and as you might know Tomita created special music as the centerpiece of the Toshiba Pavilion at that fair and also first hear "Swicthed On Bach" while working on his composition - which inspired him to learn to play the Moog.

As for your plot description, I'm not sure if you really have it down quite right ;-) That's what appears to be happening but Solaris is a planet that turns out to have a living intelligent ocean which seems to be perhaps too much for mankind to comprehend. It appears to be communicating through actualizing the memories of the orbiting crew. Some of the conflict occurs because what's going on is much to profound for those on earth to believe yet alone comprehend - it sort of looks like serious mental illness to the science agency. And then, while the Sea appears to be benign, what it's doing is taking quite an emotional and physical toll on those who encounter it. I'm sure there is a deep subtect of spirituality - nearly all of Tarkovsky's films do - though until he left the Soviet Union he had to be very careful about how he weaved his themes into the plot and was sidetracked many years over getting his projects made and then released.

 

Thanks Nick.

As for your plot description, I'm not sure if you really have it down quite right ;-)

Yeah!, ;-) well I wasn't going to try to describe the whole thing. When I saw the film, I didn't think Solaris was actually supposed to be a planet. It was just this cloud, which looked like a sea, which was surrounding the Russian space station Mir...No? The magic was that it somehow created the effect was whatever an individual thought or visualised could suddenly be, so the psychologists dead wife reappears to him etc. and the previous inhabitants on the station went mad. Tomita's piece has shaped my feeling about that more so than the film, which i only saw once a long time ago. I remember that the psychologist fellow does return home near the end, to rural Russia...can't remember how, or how the film ended, but because of Tomita's piece, the feeling/idea I associate with the whole thing about the film is one of a deep humility, knowing there are there things that cannot be understood. I know I've seen a couple of other Tarkovsky films before...the ones that come to mind are Andrei Rublev and Nostalgia. All I remember about the last one is this beautiful scene of a poet walking through a candle-lit swimming pool/spa! What was the American remake of Solaris like I wonder?

 

Oh - just to warn people, I guess the ore you read the more I might give away plot surprises - though the film wants to give you a profound sort of experience like "2001". I am certain that the Soviet film iundustry would never have let this film be made unless "2001"had been made and appreciated by intellectuals worldwide.

Well mainly I thought the mention that time/space doesn't exist isn't quite right - it's definitely the living sea trying to communicate that's making it appear that either time/space doesn't exist. But yes, it's not exactly the whole planet Solaris, it's the sea and clouds - which one assumes are directly related to the sea. So the humans are in an orbiting space station where they are studying the planet/sea. But no, the main character doesn't really return home. It ends with the sea creating an island with his dacha. There are definite parallels with heaven and the rationalization of science.

The remake isn't outright bad but is sort of at cross purposes as the science fiction aspects conflict with the bittersweet romance. I guess it tries but doesn't really deliver either. The original seems to be far more about the desire for spiritual fulfillment.