The word “experimental” has been synonymous with
director Steven Soderbergh’s name for some time now, and his
new film “Solaris” is no exception.
However, instead of wrangling actors with digital video cameras,
or focusing on international drug-runners or casino heists, this
time Soderbergh chose to remake the Stanislaw Lem novel that was
first filmed by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972.
While many consider Tarkovsky’s 168 minute epic to be the
Soviet Union’s answer to the Kubrick classic “2001: A
Space Odyssey,” Soderbergh offers a pared down 98 minute
vision that promises to be challenging.
“We went through some drafts that were completely
different ““ I wanted to see if there was something in
them,” Soderbergh said.
In addition to the A-list talent in his film, Soderbergh found
an unlikely ally in a fellow filmmaker. The director found that the
movie rights for “Solaris” were actually owned by
“Titanic” director James Cameron. With a specific
vision for the piece, Soderbergh got Cameron interested enough to
let him direct, while Cameron himself produced.
“The movie is the script,” Cameron said, pointing
out that this is not a remake of the Tarkovsky classic.
“It’s a script that Steven wrote.”
In fact, “Solaris” is actually two stories in one.
One is based on the life of Clooney’s character, Chris
Kelvin, aboard the space station floating above the moon. The other
focuses on why he decides to go in the first place. This involves
his relationship with love interest, Rheya, played by Natasha
McElhone. While it is Rheya’s suicide that jettisons Kelvin
to the station, it is her mysterious reappearance that leads to the
greater questions in the film.
“It’s really parallel storytelling,” Cameron
said, “and the structural architecture of the film is very
precise; I think it took (Soderbergh) a while to arrive at that
precision.”
“And I think that it’s a pretty unique story in that
regard,” Cameron added
Although Cameron’s take on Soderbergh’s film was
rather concrete, the impressions given by his actors revealed a
less certain entity, much like the glimpses Soderbergh gives
viewers of the surface of the planet that gives the film its
title.
“I still haven’t digested what it was about,”
McElhone said. “I’d just seen it last night,
and…there were four drafts of the script that I first read, which
were all completely different, and then we started (shooting), and
then we re-shot stuff and that changed it.”
Letting go of presumptions quickly became par for the course on
the set.
“We just played the scenes,” McElhone said.
“We didn’t even know where the camera was half the
time.”
McElhone came into the process having met Clooney only once
before. However, she used this to her advantage.
“I think Steven structured that very well,” she
said. “It was easier in the sense that you didn’t know
someone, because you’re your character and they’re
their character and that’s what you have to go on in terms of
the story.” Â
Soderbergh’s working relationship with Clooney has grown
from when they first worked together in 1997’s “Out of
Sight.” Since then, they have collaborated on a number of
films; Clooney acted in Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s
Eleven” and through Section Eight, their film production
company, the duo has executive-produced such films as Christopher
Nolan’s “Insomnia” and Todd Haynes’
“Far From Heaven.”
For Soderbergh, “Solaris” was just another one of
these steppingstones. “I feel like from an actor-director
standpoint this was a big step for the both of us,” he said.
“I felt that the film was an important evolutionary step for
me as a director and I knew it was an important evolutionary step
for George as an actor.”
The compliment is more truth than flattery, considering this is
Clooney’s first real attempt at a character with serious
emotional depth since his time as Dr. Douglass Ross on TV’s
“ER.”
“We were able to (film) in a pretty close approximation of
sequence,” Soderbergh said, “which was really important
and helpful “¦ because I felt it was important to be in
emotional order.”
Clooney found the linear shooting schedule that left room for
artistic interpretation both frightening and liberating.
Soderbergh’s process affected the actors in much the same way
audiences have reacted to his film ““ complex, but ultimately
comprehensible.
“We got into a position where we got into a room and
we’d start rehearsal for a scene, and Steve would go,
“˜Okay, let’s try it,’ and we’d try it one
way and we’d move around (in order to) find where it wanted
to be,” Clooney said. “Then he’d say, “˜That
doesn’t work, say this,’ and then he’d say,
“˜Okay, well this is actually more about this,’ and then
you’d go, “˜Oh,’ and then everything would change
and then you’d say “˜Oh, wait a minute,’ and then
all of a sudden you’d understand what the scene (was
about).”
Steven Soderbergh’s “Solaris” opens nationwide
Friday, November 29th. That same day, the Nuart Theater on Santa
Monica begins its week-long limited run of the 1972 Tarkovsky
classic.