STANISLAW LEM

Chemical futures, living oceans, alien transfigurations

Reviews:

• The Congress: A graceful reflection on the human condition soused in gorgeous imagery and surreal, intoxicated melancholy
• Solaris: Strange and beautiful variations on themes of doubt, unease and illusion.

Comic Strip Review:

• 1: One of the lesser known film adaptations of Stanislaw Lem’s work, based on the short story One Human Minute.

Interview:

• Ari Folman on his adaptation of The Futurological Congress

Feature:

• Extract from Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress

Reel Sounds:

• Ikarie XB-1: The high pitch of strangeness
• Solaris: The weightless drift of the claustrophobic soul

Short Cuts:

• Maska: A sumptuous animation of this strange story of mutated identity by the Brothers Quay

Alter Ego:

• Novelist Adam Roberts picks Solaris as his filmic alter ego

Podcast:

• Kosmos: Polish and Russian Sci-Fi Cinema: Virginie Sélavy talks to Russian scholar Sergei Kapterev about Soviet science fiction and the connection between SF cinema and politics, the impact of the space race and the Cold War period, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) and Stalker (1979), and Roger Corman’s re-edits of popular Soviet SF films. Plus Alex Fitch talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and SF writer/journalist Wojciech Orliński about cinematic adaptations of the work of Stanislaw Lem from Steven Soderbergh and Andrei Tarkovsky’s versions of Solaris to Edward Zebrowski’s The Hospital of Transfiguration.

See all cinematic themes & personalities covered in Electric Sheep Magazine

Illustration by Alex Fitch