Tea & films: What are you watching?
bakemono no ko is out, but unsubbed for anyone who likes anime. looks amazing.
I’m also going through one of those big 250 classic films lists, I dont remember seeing ‘solaris’ a scifi from the 70s. thats also on my list. Also ‘stalker’ the film the game from 5 or 10 years ago was based on
You may want to read the book Solaris before/after watching the movie. Stalker is very slow paced, so set your expectations accordingly.
is the book much better? i’d rather just do that if so.
Im fine with slow pacing if the story is worth it
Solaris: The book is great, among the best sci-fi novels I’ve read. Tarkovskiy pays his homage to Stanislaw Lem by sticking close to the storyline of the book for nearly all of the movie. If you plan to do only one of the book or movie, I’d suggest the book – after all the only tea in the movie gets washed away undrunk in the rain :-)
Stalker: I donno if this is also based on a book, I’ve only seen the movie. Do not expect any kind of typical sci-fi movie. Even though the core of the movie is based on a sci-fi theme, Tarkovskiy’ style is to focus more on the artistic and philosophical aspects instead. So only watch when you are in the proper mood for that.
These movies are close to 3 hours long, make sure you have a tub of popcorn and a litre of iced tea handy!
Stalker is also based on a book, well, maybe “inspired by” is more correct, because I think Tarkovsky really liked the idea of a ‘Stalker’ and the ‘Zone’. the book is called Roadside Picnic, by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I think I remember reading somewhere that Solaris is one of Tarkovsky’s least favourite films, but I love it. You might also like Offret (The Sacrifice), it was Tarkovsky’s last film, Sven Nykvist did the cinematography!
And since I saw you were watching Kurosawa, and if you haven’t seen them yet, I definitely recommend The Hidden Fortress and Throne of Blood. Have you seen Oldboy? it’s part of the Park Chan-wook’s “Vengeance” trilogy along with Sympathy for Mr./Lady Vengeance.
as for me, I tried to watch Peaky Blinders (tv series) but had to stop because, although it was beautifully filmed I could not cope with having Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” as it’s theme song. it’s the worst. so, I’ve mostly been knitting and listening to Harry Potter audiobooks :-/
Re. Solaris being his least favorite movie – that is because Tarkovskiy actually hates sci-fi and wanted to originally base 2/3rd of the movie on Earth instead of in space. However Lem was adamant about sticking close to the storyline and Tarkovskiy had to fall in line.
I remember watching Hidden Fortress, a lesser known movie of Kurosawa, mainly cause Lucas got his inspiration for R2D2 and C3PO from characters in that movie :-)
yeah I loved those two kurosawas, and yes to oldboy, and no spoilers pleassssseeee ever again, I dont know anything about stalker
Strange that you’ve watched a ton of Kurosawa but haven’t seen his best movie Rashomon yet :-)
Which spoiler are you referring to?
ahhh cool, I thought you were talking about stalker that will teach me to glance over things while doing others :D
And Rashomon is ready to watch, ive got a collection of kurosawa sitting here.
Shall I watch it now?
You thought right, I did type Stalker instead of Solaris by mistake and corrected it :-) In any case, no spoilers were there for either movie, it was just a reference to discussions between the author and director about changing the book for the movie which thankfully never happened.
Sure, watch Rashomon now, hope I didn’t set your expectations too high by calling it his best :-)
Login or sign up to leave a comment.