I managed to appreciate it much more on my second watch. I was totally captured by the dialogue and the long takes, but be aware that it's quite boring in the beginning. A true science fiction classic that explores the nature of humanity. > We don't need other worlds. We need a mirror. We struggle to make contact, but we'll never achieve it. We are in a ridiculous predicament of man pursuing a goal that he fears and that he really does not need. Man needs man!

A unique and cerebral film, with beautiful visuals, and an intricate plot, about self-discovery and existentialism.

*2001: A Space Odyssey* meets *Twin Peaks* season 3. If you think that's a compliment you'll love ***Solaris***. I think it's a strong recipe for boredom and pretencious nonsense. I felt every second of this. It took 44 minutes and a 5 minute scene of just traffic before we finally get to space and I was happy for a second but then it's right back to the turtle pacing. There might be a great story hidden in there if you glue all the character interactions and story bits together but all the silences, slow talking, unimpressive visuals and slooowwwnesss in between ruins everything. It just couldn't keep my interest most of the time and never really earned it either. The dialogue is well-written and profound but the character interactions are so weird, off, slow, like a fever dream. Ugly visuals whenever they show the water but the inside sets are nice and I like the variety of color and black and white filters they used. Good performances. Ok score. Incredibly long. Nice metaphor to the metaphorical metaphor there at the end. Watch here: https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE?si=oPJROzs9b2WSt1vA

The original title of the film is Solyaris.

Mankind needs idealism – in the greater sense of the word. Yet, like vampires, when reflected, they disappear.