Dear all:
This year it is 100 years since Stanisław Lem, and on a new website
dedicated to his life and works we learn the reason for Lem being reserved
about both film versions of Solaris, his most well-known work. Lem accused
them, above all, of abandoning the scientific aspects of the novel, and of
side-stepping the issue of a first contact with a non-human form of
life.With regard to the version by Tarkovski the website features an
excerpt from an interview with Lem where he states that:
“There were, indeed, significant differences of opinion between me and
Tarkovsky, based simply on the fact that in this work, as I understood it,
I had presented a problem of a cognitive nature, which is a theme that I am
deeply interested in. It was this conundrum that man encounters on his path
to cognition and is unable to deal with, because the mystery it symbolizes
is manifested by the sentient ocean, and cannot be equated with human,
humanoid imaginations made or formed on Earth. So in one word, it was,
let's call it, a question of the tragedy of cognition. On the other hand,
Tarkovsky wanted to explore issues of guilt and punishment. I understand
this very well, because these explorations are central to the Russian
tradition; we can see them in the works of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and
Punishment and those of Leo Tolstoy. Initially, there were very drastic
clashes between us. We were simply arguing. Finally I understood that
neither of us could convince the other. And so I decided to give him a free
hand, believing that if I considered him to be a great artist, then I
should then allow him to express himself within the framework of my work,
but all the while actually following his own ideas. That said, the main
themes of my book and its pivotal direction was something different to what
Tarkovsky had wanted to foreground. But ultimately he was right to pursue
his vision. My position is that directors - be they from the worlds of
theatre or film - have the right to express their own vision through a work
taken from a writer. And Tarkovsky did just that. Happily, the film was
internationally acclaimed, even in far-flung parts of the world. For
example, somewhere I have recently read exceptionally good criticisms from
New Zealand, in the southern hemisphere. And in this respect, the film
functions completely autonomously. Well, I do not make any secret of this
fact, we did clash; and it remained the case until, well ‘like two opposing
gods in the sun’ we looked at the same thing from two different sides.
Well, is this so wrong? I think life would be much more boring and
uninteresting if everyone shared the same viewpoint all the time.”
The website is available in Polish and English at
https://www.galaktykalema.pl/
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld <https://torgeirfjeld.com/>
~~ ereignis <https://ereignis.no/>: taking you to who you are ~~
