Why this is a 2-disc set is somewhat mysterious, and still odder is why the film is divided between the two discs. A similar scrappiness infects the organisation of the extras. Trailers and the Bondarchuk interview pop up in the middle of the usual sterile text biographies, as "Announcements". They should be organised from a separate menu. There is also a tendency towards pidgin English in the subtitles, particularly bad news in a film with such decorous and expressive language.
However, once you've got to them, you'll enjoy these bits and bobs. There's an original trailer for Andrei Rublev, one for Mirror and another for At Home Amongst Strangers. These make Mirror look much the most promising.
The two sets of stills actually make some sense of the split between the discs, as Disc 1's is a colour set of star stills, whilst Disc 2's are in black-and-white and document the making of the film.
The two interviews and the little biopic of Banionis are more substantial. Bondarchuk's is the least good, being short, self-centred and revealing little apart from trivia. One point of interest: she says that "we worked in the regime of one take", which resonates with the film's style. There's not much of Tarkovsky's sister either, but she tackles some of the real issues, claiming that he "remained himself" at Mosfilm, that the moral was always of more interest to him than the technological and that he succeeded in making the films he conceived. "Andrei was a remarkable person", she rightly concludes. The short film on Banionis is stylishly shot and cut, and gives an intriguing slice of Soviet stardom in the Seventies.
More importantly, the feature looks very good and sounds even better. Tarkvosky obviously placed great weight on the sound of Solaris and the soundtrack is in lovely condition on this disc. The visuals are not quite as clear - the colours look a little starched and the definition isn't as razor sharp as the soundtracks - but that's perhaps no fault of the distributors, Artificial Eye, who've produced a rather jumbled, but high quality release.
Printer-friendly version
