Once again music gets the blame

[Paul Mather]

On Thu, Jan 09, 2003 at 12:53:04PM +0000, M Holmes wrote:

=> It'll certainly be interesting to see what they do with the remake of
=> Tarkovsky's "Solaris". That's a very cerebral film. A remake could
=> produce one of the best SF movies made, or it could degenerate into
=> Event Horizon II.

This remake was shilled out the wazoo some time before Xmas.  Most of
the press I saw, though, seemed to be fixated on George Clooney's bare
butt. :-\

I did see a review, and it seemed to me that the remake was an homage
to Tarkovsky's original (though bizarrely, Tarkovsky was mentioned so
briefly you'd think he wasn't).  I think an homage is a shame, in that
it's a bit redundant and a wasted opportunity.  I love Tarkovsky's
original (in fact, I re-watched it when I heard Hollywood was
re-making it), but even it does not cover all of Lem's book (which I
also love), so there was room for more exploration of the novel in a
possible remake.

But, it seems that the remake of Solaris is not as bad as I'd imagined
when I first heard it was being remade.  (I had visions of wave upon
wave of the visitors attacking the station occupants a la _Aliens_,
_Resident Evil_, _Night of the Living Dead_ et al.;)  What I'd *really*
like to see is a remake of _Stalker_ (Tarkovsky's film based on the
Strugatsky brother's _Roadside Picnic_) that actually follows the
story... :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa