Tarkovsky, Bach and God in Tarkovsky’s Solaris
I first heard Bach’s choral prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (“I call to thee, Lord Jesus Christ”) in Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). It seems to me one of the most beautiful compositions, and Tarkovsky’s scene, in which the piece harmonizes with the camera as it plays over Brueghel’s Hunters in the Snow (1565), one of the most solemnly lovely in cinema.
The camera scrutinizes Brueghel’s painting, at first coldly (as Kris must see it), and then with a certain wistful sorrow, as if in recognition of our hopeless estrangement from the natural life of the old village. The mournful precision of Bach’s piece underscores that there is only the sadness of our estrangement and longing. Kris stirs with new humility and humanity, and he and Hari begin to float, ostensibly in a state of zero gravitation, but actually in a state of grace.
In a 1986 interview, Laurence Cossé asked Tarkovsky whether he considered his films “acts of love towards the Creator.” Tarkovsky responded ”I would like to think so. I’m working on it, in any case. The ideal for me would be to make this constant gift, this gift that Bach alone, truly, was able to offer God.”
Excerpts from Solaris, with the Bach theme:
The complete levitation scene from Solaris. You will be asked to watch this on Youtube, for copyright reasons.
Horowitz’s transcendentally lovely interpretation:
