The Man Who Sold The World

Offret (The Sacrifice)(1986)

Directed By Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrie Tarkaovsky's (Russia's finest film maker) final film takes elements from Ingmar Bergman, "I Am Cuba" with a story that if not influenced by, is a kind of psychic cousin to the later works of Philip K. Dick. A family on a small Swedish island, find out the world is about to endThere's nowhere to hid and nothing that can be done, planes can be heard overhead, and television warnings are all anyone knows. So far this doesn't sound too different from Bergman's "Shame" where a couple try to escape from the world and war, on a similar small Swedish Island. The difference is where Bergman, dissects his characters down to nothingness, Tarkovsky includes mysterious post-men obsessed with miracles, a maid who may be a powerful witch, a man with the chance to re-create the universe, and a love making scene in mid-air? That Tarkovsky moves with such subtly between psychological study, religious allegory, and science fiction tropes, shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering his early philosophical SF films like "Solaris", and "Stalker"(which I may re-watch, because of this film, though I hated it before). Like Philip K. Dick, end of the world paranoia, reality manipulation, and the religious (specifically Christian) ecstatic vision all merge together in 'The Sacrifice", with a lot more force and clarity(at least for me) than in any of his earlier films. The lead character seems like a stand in for Tarkovsky himself, his views on nature, art, God, progress, and humanity, seem to match pretty closely with some he gives in the interview section of the DVD. It's still slow as all hell, but the intensity of the story helps balance out the visual pace. It's not as instantly impressive as some of Tarkovsky's other films, but I think this maybe his strongest movie, all around. It's the story of a man who saved the world, without anyone ever knowing it, and the trade off, man must make with God, in order to survive. A prayer on film.

How I Wish, How I Wish You Were Here...

Solyaris (Solaris)(1972)

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

"We don't want new worlds, we only want to expand Earth endlessly. We don't want anything new. We just want a mirror."

One the best movies ever. EVER.
It is very slow though, and though I enjoyed the remake, this rises above the source material and becomes something more, you could re-tell the story, but you could never remake this movie.
A psychologist is sent to investigate a rash of strange hallucinations plaguing a group of cosmonauts orbiting a planet covered entirely by an ocean.
The cosmonauts are seeing those they left behind on earth, the dead and those they wish were with them.
They believe the planet is causing these people to appear, the people themselves contain only the memories of those who remember them and slowly become aware of their artificiality.
It's truly haunting and emotionally harrowing, while not sacrificing an inch of it's speculative curiosity, a rarity in science fiction, and films in general. And the 15 minute, Tokyo freeway scene, and the final scene as the camera zooms out are two of the best Ive ever seen anywhere.
Solaris is to inner space and internal experience what Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" is to outer space and man's external environment.