She talks right, she's mostly right

[sanspoof]

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Sidney Lumet. Jan 1, 3:45 pm. View count: One.

Solaris (2002), Steven Soderbergh. Jan 1, 6:30pm, and Jan 2, 10am with commentary. View count: Two.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (the first movie we've seen at our local theatre, the Rafael): I am sadly, sadly deficient in Sidney Lumet's work; I

Comments

[piehead]

I liked the original Solaris better, though it does get all long, ponderous and Russian.

I will say that the Solaris effects in the remake were grating, what with being color-cycling plasma fractals and all.

[mmcirvin]

The novel is pretty good, possibly great, but unfortunately the English translation is weak, and last I heard it would be hard to get a better one published for rights-related reasons. It's a pity since Solaris is so often mentioned as Lem's masterpiece, and some of Lem's other books have brilliant English translations by Michael Kandel.

Lem was a cranky cuss to the end and he hated both movies. I think they're both solid, and both adequately respectful adaptations of Lem's novel (though their endings are tweaked), but Tarkovsky's is better. The Soderbergh one almost completely jettisons the material Lem was most interested in, about the exploration of Solaris as an example of intellect encountering the utterly incomprehensible. I can understand why, but I'd still like to see someone take a serious crack at visualizing some of the more trippy stuff Lem described in the book; Tarkovsky actually did more in that direction though he didn't have the effects technology for a proper go at it.

[sanspoof]

That is totally what I had heard about the Tarkovsky version... although I thought Soderbergh said in the talkover that Lem hadn't actually seen either? Soderbergh did make a really big deal about it being essentially about only the emotions of the protagonist and his wife.
I haven't read the book in years... I should definitely reread it.

[mmcirvin]

Did you see the trailer on the DVD that tried to sell Solaris as a chick flick? It was hilarious.

[sanspoof]

[spit take] Well, now I have. Wow. It's like all the non-book elements got together to be a trailer.