Raining inside the house
What's the deal? What's it mean?
shareIt means the ocean can't reproduce things perfectly. It's just making a mistake.
In that scene the pond is also frozen over but it is not winter.
--
But there's more to it than that, isn't there? Why did Tarkovsky choose the image of raining inside the house to convey the fact that the Ocean is making a mistake? I think there's some symbolism to the rain indoors, and it recalls the rainstorm that Kelvin experiences outside in the first scene of the film. E.g., home is supposed to be a place of shelter (literally, from the rain, and metaphorically, from the sorrows of life). But Kelvin for some reason is unwilling (in the first scene) or unable (in the last scene) to utilize this shelter.
shareYou are right that the rain scene mirrors the one at the beginning of the movie. It bookends the movie nicely. The early scene got imprinted in Kelvin's memory and the ocean downloaded it from there and recreated the virtual reality house+lake. But as we know already the ocean is always screwing up some detail hence the rain is falling indoors and not outside.
This is a complex enough scene. Kelvin gets a second chance to tell Dad how much he loved him - which he never got a chance to do in real life. But he becomes painfully aware that the dad in front of him is not his real dad. Nevertheless he gives in to the need to reconnect emotionally w his dad anyway. So there is enough going on there w\o the symbolism overload.
-- Mothershytter... Son of an ass!!
Thanks for the explanation. LOL symbolism overload. You're probably right.
It's a fantastic scene in any case, whatever it means.
I think the rain is just a device to make the viewer realize that there's something wrong, that this is not Earth.
But if you're into that, the symbolism of the scene can be over-extended. At the beginning of the film, it is raining outside, in tone with the space exploration theme, which implies large scale, open space, outward movement. At the end, it is raining inside, in tone with the inner, personal journey the film turned out to be.
But I have to say I don't like the ending, it deviates (as most of the film, actually) from the book (which I love), and doesn't make that much sense.
After the electroencephalogram, the ocean stops reviving the guests... only to substitute them for a more elaborate version? After Harey's death and Kris's speech, we're suddenly thrown back where we started, with him struggling with his demons, only Harey being replaced by his father. There's no gradation, no character development, the ending seems just like an unnecessary twist.
https://www.threadless.com/designs/i-am-a-90s-kid
The dad's not Kelvin's real dad. Is Kelvin the real Kelvin?
I thought that whole last scene was the Ocean endlessly replaying Kelvin's memories with its own puppet creations.
--
I should warn you -- he's a Fourierist.
Yes, It is real kevin on the island because we can see him curiously looking at each and every detail that has been formed on the planet.
shareI found it interesting that by kneeling next to his dad and kissing his hand, he does the exact same gesture that he made before with Hari.
My view on this is that he realizes that his dad and Hari are on and the same being, that the ocean is the one alive in both of them. Perhaps this is trying to show that Chris also loves the ocean itself, for what it is, not as an imitation/illusion, but as a living being.
In its term, the ocean expressed his love for him by re-creating his house, his father and the woods around his house, and even somehow managed to get him there. Or maybe just as the ocean created for Chris that which he loved (his wife), the same way the ocean created for itself... that which it had itself grown to love (Chris).
Either way, a very beautiful message!
by raduneo;
"Perhaps this is trying to show that Chris also loves the ocean itself, for what it is, not as an imitation/illusion, but as a living being."
My view is that Kelvin loves what the Solaris planet is doing because it is bringing back the experience of lost loved ones.
"In its term, the ocean expressed his love for him by re-creating his house, his father and the woods around his house, and even somehow managed to get him there. Or maybe just as the ocean created for Chris that which he loved (his wife), the same way the ocean created for itself... that which it had itself grown to love (Chris)."
I wonder if Kelvin cares that the Solaris planet is creating replicas of his wife and father.
For Kelvin it seems that the emotions are real with a replica as they were with the flesh and blood originals.
The rain imo is just the trigger to show Kelvin that the house, land and father are a creation of the planet.
But again in the end, Kelvin does not seem to care.
- In religious terms the planet has godlike power. It is bringing back loved ones as if it can reveal some science fiction heaven.
And Kelvin has a very strong, positive response to that.
It may be Tarkovsky saying, some human beings at least want to reunite with loved ones who are gone (have died).
That would fit with some of Tarkovsky's religious views.
BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈
I do not think there is much in the way of "traditional" symbolism in that scene. The movie spends a good deal of time showing earth in all it's "wet" glory, this is Solaris' attempt to recreate it after Kris sent his "encephlogram", but it gets everything inside out. It's also a visual cue that something isn't quite right and it sets up the final helicopter shot.
share