• Audience/ Impact

1/ What Reality is the film outlining?

‘Phenomenologically the terms ‘internal’ and ‘external’ have little validity. But in this whole realm one is reduced to mere verbal expedients – words are simply the finger pointing to the moon. One of the difficulties of talking in the present day of these matters is that the very existence of inner realities is now called in question. By ‘inner’ I mean our way of seeing the external world and all those realities that have no ‘external’, ‘objective’ presence – imagination, dreams, phantasies, trances, the realities of contemplative and meditative states, realities that modern man, for the most part, has not the slightest direct awareness of. ’ Laing, R.D. (1981, 1st ed. 1967). The politics of experience and the bird of paradise. (Penguin Books – Middlesex, England).- p.115

2/ How did the general public react to the film’s message at the time of the release and what are the views on it now?

I tried to find information on the Internet as well as in books but I couldn’t find something saftisfactory to respond to this question, other than simply stating the fact that Solaris was:

Nominated for the Golden Scroll Best Science Fiction Film
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
Year Result: 1977

Awarded the FIPRESCI Prize: Cannes Film Festival 1972
Award Category/Recipient(s): Andrei Tarkovsky

Awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival 1972
Recipient(s): Andrei Tarkovsky

Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes Film Festival 1972
Recipient(s):Andrei Tarkovsky

(information sourced from:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069293/awards  – accessed on 11.11.2009)