Solaris

I recently watched the film Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky 1972) I didn't originally intend to make a blog post about it but after watching it I felt it fit the theme of experimental narrative too well not to talk about it here.
The film presents itself as a sci-fi. It takes place mostly on a scientific station orbiting the planet Solaris. The people stationed on the station to study the planet have sent strange reports to earth and seem to have grown mentally unstable. Upon arriving at the station, Kris Kelvin discovers that one of the scientists is dead and the other two are not very helpful when questioned.
Kris Kelvin finds his long dead ex-wife on the station and must emotionally contend with her, himself, the scientists, and his mission, none of which he is particularly effective at.
The pacing throughout the film is slow and very little of what happens is expounded upon directly. The film regularly switches between black and white and color without any apparent reasoning yet in a way that is clearly intentional. The mood of the film is dark and philosophical, ideas contending with each other as well as with reality. Dreams are not necessarily confined to the mind. Goals that seemed obvious become lost in the planet's strange fog.
A complaint I have about the movie is the special effects of the planet's ocean surface which leave much to be desired.