Solyaris is Andrei Tarkovksky's masterpiece but only one among many. It's a subconscious journey through dark, blocked content in one man's life. It's also a film, like Woman in the Dunes, that deals with Existential angst and the real possibility that life could be a solipsism.

Surely other people exist, but the paradox is that we actually create their existence, to ourselves, in our own minds. Truth is very subjective and a lot of the time we interact with our version of others rather than them as they really are. In Solyaris, our projections or our inner experience of others physically come to life and unresolved, unconscious life experiences that we refused to face, now seek resolution. Solyaris is science fiction with a psychological bent that builds slowly and hypnotically.

Tarkovsky is Russia's greatest director and this is probably his greatest film but I also loved The Mirror (aka Zerkalo) - but just about any of his films is worth a viewing.

You can view the entire film here but without subtitles and view some clips here.

Collage by marcellinho:

Screens:

Product Links:

The most realized film version of Existentialism, Hiroshi Teshigahara's masterpiece is probably a perfect film. On the surface it's about a man's internal struggle over his inability to make a relationship work and his general alienation. This Sisyphus is an entomologist condemned to live material eternity in a trap that he must come to terms with. He is the insects he studies, lost in their futile struggle to build something that the earth will easily swallow up in time. All is transitory but the Self.

According to the ancient sages of India, the Self is neither the body, thoughts, feelings, nor intellect, but rather all pervasive Being/Consciousness manifesting as the Heart in all beings, from which emanates the awareness of "I" and Knowledge of the Self, which includes the realization that all knowledge is in and from the subject-"I", the seer, not the object.

Trailer:

Screens:

Product Links:

"Keep your eye on your inner world and keep away from ads, idiots and movie stars" - Dorothea Tanning

"All good ideas arrive by chance." - Max Ernst

Claudia Llosa's debut feature film Madeinusa (pronounced Ma–den–OO–za) is a fable about the United States' (or the Western world) influence on South America's (Peru in this case) tribal population. It's a fascinating portrayal of the townsfolk that doesn't judge them, but rather presents them as they are. Their traditions are Catholic but only in a fragmented version as is their entire life which is mixed with all sorts of pagan and tribal traditions.

The drama starts with a tall, dark gringo stranger entering the town from Lima as the town is starting it's yearly Holy Time, a kind of bacchanalian festival where anything goes and a kind of opposite world is lived for a few days. The stricking images document their rituals relating to this festival. One of the most interesting involves the men cutting off each other's ties (symbolic phalluses) with scissors before starting an orgiastic dance where the women choose which men they want to pair off with. There's a virgin contest which doesn't seem unlike the Miss America (or Miss USA) pagaent and clues you into why it's such a scandal here when one of the debutantes is shown to not be a pure. Things don't really change fundamentally, but instead only change appearence. The titular Madeinusa wins the beauty/virginity contest, partially because she's the daughter of the mayor - her father unfortunately has his incestuous eyes on her and Holy Time is when the virgins are deflowered.

I won't give away any more of the plot, I'll just say that this is a great debut feature and is a window into Peru's tribal culture and the influence of the Western world (symbolized by the capital city, Lima) on it. Even if you don't particularly like movies, students of anthropology will find it as fascinating as film fans find it compelling.

Screens:

Product Links: