Solaris

Solaris as Anti-Soviet Propaganda?

On 18 February 1971 Tarkovsky notes in his diaries: ‘ The supreme idea of socialism is machinery. It turns a person into a mechanical person. There are rules for everything. And so man is taken form himself. His living soul is removed. It is understandable that one may be calm in such Easter quietism, and these gentlemen say they are progressive! My God! If that is progress, then what is Eastern quietism! ‘
and then,
Socialism is despair at the impossibility of ever being able to organize man. It organizes tyranny for him and says that is freedom itself! > about Svidrigailov, Dostoevsky’s notebooks, about Crime and Punishment, p. 556.
I’m very strongly affected by diaries and archives and , ”laboratories” of every kind. They’re wonderful catalyst.’
Tarkovsky, A. (1994), Time within Time: The Diaries 1907 -1986, translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair, Faber and Faber Limited, p. 36
Tarkovsky was without doubt influenced by Dostoevsky and not only. He had plenty of his own experiences from Soviet Russia, his motherland and socialist oppressive system. It is not difficult to see critical notes in Tarkovsky’s films as his own life and carrier were deeply affected by its dogma’s.
We could read ‘ Solaris as a metaphoric device capable of illuminating the relationship between individuals and societies. [...] It portrays which affect the human senses but stress that it is the power of our own senses that we must be most afraid. It is not therefore the surface of the planet which is most to be mistrusted [...] but our own consciousness which is formed in relation to it.’
Johnson, P. (2006), Through the Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, edited by Johnsson, G. and Ottarsson, T., Cambridge Scholar Press, chapter Subjectivity and Sociality in the Films of Andrei Trakovsky, p. 71
This metaphor could be related to any system, society that is suppressing individual trough manipulation of their social environment, creating network of expectations and prohibition reaching deep inside his mind and soul.
Tarkovsky as we already know was a child of Stalinist era and Second World War and as his life happened to finish early, he did not get the chance to benefit form changes that brought year 1986 and following period of Gorbachev election to Congress of People’s Deputies. Tarkovsky as we already know was a child of Stalinist era and Second World War and as his life happened to finish early, he did not get the chance to benefit form changes that brought year 1986 and following period of Gorbachev election to Congress of People’s Deputies.
‘ The year of Tarkovsky’s death marked a turning point in Soviet cinema. In May 1986 the executive committee of the Soviet film federation was voted out of office and replaced by new representatives under the leadership of Emil Klimov. Feodor Yermash, tha chairman of Goskino who had repeatedly obstructed Tarkovsky’s career, was removed from his post shortly before the director’s death. The new political climate in the Soviet Union resulted in the release of large number of films that had been kept on the shelves for years. [...] In 1988 the first festival of independent film was held in Riga.’ Green, P. (1993) Andrei Tarkovsky: The Winding Quest, The McMillan Press Ltd, p. 137

Q: What kind or reference to Russian literature we can find in Tarkovsky’s art? Why did he identify with it so much?

What lead to Tarkovsky’s trouble with Committee and why?

http://magdalenaalcantaracmp.wordpress.com/