9) Solaris
No, not the so-so George Clooney Hollywood remake from 2002. We’re talking about the far superior Russian/German language original. Based on the philosophical novel by Stanislaw Lem, Solaris is often seen as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made by aficionados (such as renowned Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa).
In it, a psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris to investigate the strange psychological episodes that each of the station’s crew have suffered from. While there, though, he’s affected by the same emotional and mental crisis – such as hallucinating his wife, who committed suicide years previously. What follows is a chilling yet visually-stunning movie which explores and challenges our notions of grief, our perception of reality and the limits of our minds.
Director Andrei Tarkovsky intended Solaris to be an antidote to western sci-fi films which he thought were too shallow. Don’t seek it out if you like straight answers and lots of incident, but it is a must-watch if you fancy having your brain shaken up and taken for an imaginative, unpredictable and thoroughly disturbing ride.