Science Fiction

Bench on small lake in Durand Eastman Park
Bench on small lake in Durand Eastman Park

I’ve been meaning to check out the Bad Plus’s version of Ornette Coleman’s “Science Fiction” lp. That album knocked me out when I first heard it and it still does. The two songs with exotic vocals were a great entry point into Ornette’s world. I felt like I had waited all my life for the song, “All My Life.”

But I never cared for science fiction, the genre, or at least I didn’t think I did until Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Solaris.” It took us four sittings to get through it but that was only due to us being knocked out four separate times, so knocked by its beauty that one of us fell asleep.

The movie is not only visually stunning and otherworldly, the soundtrack moves freely from electronic to Bach and at times is totally silent while the main character sleeps.

To top it all off the director uses paintings by Pieter Bruegel to maximum effect. Check out this amazing piece of the movie.

1 Comment

One Reply to “Science Fiction”

  1. Complete agreement on Solaris. Some scenes from that film continue to drift into my mind unexpectedly. It was made a cuppla yrs after 2001 and was the Russian counterpart. Total contrast in production technology between the 2 but Solaris is much more satisfying to me.

    If you haven’t seen Ivans Childhood (aka My Name is Ivan) I recommend that, and also Nostalghia which happens to be streaming at the moment on Netflix. I’m rewatching it this AM.

    http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Nostalghia/812818?trkid=226872

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