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Comment by gordon_freeman | Hacker News Reader

Just a few days ago I watched Sci-fi classic "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky and I had no expectations or knowledge about the movie or Director before watching it and it blew my mind. I then looked into other movies directed by Tarkovsky such as "Stalker" and "Andrei Rublev" which nobody in my age group knows or talk about but these are great movies. I am looking forward to finding such hidden gems and watching these films.

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After I watched Solaris I decided to space out the other Tarkovsky films over a period of years. They each hit me so hard that I wanted to always know there was one waiting for me that I could look forward to seeing, ideally as a restored print at the local rep cinema. Now I only have The Sacrifice left.

I also very much recommend Chris Marker's documentary on Tarkovsky, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch [1][2]. Germane to this thread, he compares aspects of his films to Kurosawa in parts. Marker is also an incredible singular filmmaker, and the documentary is more of a love letter to Tarkovsky while he's on his deathbed. If you enjoy this, then oh do I envy you getting to go down the Marker rabbit hole and watching Sans Soleil and La Jetée for the first time.

[1] English with Turkish subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=35lETmPDypI

[2] French https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M56i90Q1-Y

Stalker is fantastic, as is "Roadside Picnic," the novel on which the film is based. Both inspired the acclaimed computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

Solaris is a beautiful book. It’s a short read, too. I highly recommend it.

This was a case where I thought the movie (Tarkovsky's Solaris) was much better than the book.

I would definitely put Andrei Tarkovsky in the same league of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Watching movies such as Solaris, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blue Velvet etc. feel like watching a beautiful and masterpiece art.

Andrei Arsenevich Tarkovsky is definitely greater than Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch in my book. He's a genius and I highly recommend reading "Sculping in Time", a book he wrote to explain his approach to film making.

Agree. I think the ordering is Tarkovsky > Kubrick > Lynch. All great directors, though.

Indeed. A bit like what happened with Blade Runner and 2001 (which has a different relationship to the movie as neither is based on the other).

I think 2001 is a movie making masterclass in itself.

An interesting note here is that the edition most people have read was translated into English from a French edition. Lem wasn't happy with the translation, and there was a direct Polish to English translation done in 2011 which was blessed by Lem's estate, and which was released as an audible exclusive audiobook, and then on Kindle in 2014. It still isn't available in print.

There are substantial differences in the tone and even the character names.

I still like Tarkovsky's version best, even though Lem was not a fan.

That explains it. I had difficulties with the English translation. I thought maybe this is art or something. Then read it in some other language, and it was more palatable, but I do not remember the book anymore. I only remember an enormous baby rolling in the sea and lofty structures emerging from the sea as a by-product of Solaris brain ruminating.

I'd risk to suggest that "Andrei Rublev" is Tarkovsky's best film as it is both approachable, auteur, commercial, poetic, symbolic, naturalistic and everything you'd imagine one of the vertebras of the 20th century culture to be.

Yes, late Tarkovsky is great too, but it's not really quite cinema at that point. "Rublev" is The Movie in Tarkovsky's filmography.

It's also probably one of the best medieval films there is, regardless of the genre, "7th Seal" to "Kingdom of Heaven".

Another great, often overlooked movie is his very first one - "Ivan's Childhood". You can see him still begin somewhat cautious there, but the movie is as poignant as they get. It was created by one of the best artists of the generation as he watched the dawn of the 60s era as a member of the society for which World War 2 and Red Terror are yet to become "yesterday".

I was a little underwhelmed by Tarkovsky's take on Solaris; the book was written with a lot more evocative prose, especially with respect to color, which made the film seem just so plain. But I really liked Stalker - then again I hadn't read Roadside Picnic. My understanding is that Tarkovsky's adaptations are usually quite different from the source material.

The production of Stalker caused the deaths of multiple people due to the toxic environment.

While different genre, still recommend watching 'Viy': https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062453

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