This was the most widely seen of Andrei Tarkovsky's films outside of the Soviet Union. However, Tarkovsky himself reportedly considered it the least favorite of the films he directed. Not being a fan of the science fiction genre (which he criticized for its "comic book trappings and vulgar commercialism"), he was nevertheless persuaded to propose this adaptation of the eponymous and popular sci-fi novel 'Solaris' to appease the Soviet censors. However, he considered the film an artistic failure because of its need for technological dialogue and special effects, which prevented it from transcending its genre; something he believed his movie Stalker (1979) did better.
This is not the first adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's novel, as Solyaris (1968) was made four years before, and was much more faithful to the book. Andrei Tarkovsky wanted to make a film based on the novel but artistically independent of it, by adding greater emotional depth to the science fiction genre. Lem, however, was scathing of Tarkovsky's version: he admitted that on his first view on Polish television, he had switched it off halfway through as he "couldn't stand it", and only saw the full movie years after Tarkovsky's death. Lem complained that the director, rather than adapting his novel about the impossibility of contacting alien intelligence that is guided by completely incomprehensible logic, had basically made 'Crime and Punishment' in space. Tarkovsky, in turn, stated that Lem did not fully appreciate cinema, and expected the film to merely illustrate the novel without creating an original cinematic piece. He further explained that he used Lem's existential conflicts of man's condition in nature and the nature of man in the universe as the starting point for depicting the characters' inner lives: "For me, what happened on the space station between Kelvin and Harey is simply a question of a person's relationship with his own conscience."
There are a number of references to Cervantes' "Don Quixote" in the film. In the library, Snaut quotes from the novel ("Never before, Sancho, have I heard you speak so elegantly as now.") At one point, Dr. Snaut also refers to tilting at windmills, and during the weightless scene, an open copy of Don Quixote with the illustration of Gustave Doré flies past; the illustration depicts the knight errant on his steed Rocinante.
The "ocean" on Solaris was made of a solution of acetone, aluminum powder and various dyes.
In addition to Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Hunters in the Snow," the painting that is meditated on in the library, four more of his paintings can be seen displayed there during the weightless scene: "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," "The Harvesters," "The Gloomy Day, beginning of Spring," and "The Tower of Babel."