I saw Solaris as a teenager and loved it. I still do. It's such a haunting and thoughtful film, and beautifully shot and composed. (Reminds me of Second Life in parts too!)The Bach organ piece that is played throughout still has a certain wistful effect on me. MInd you Kris does/did have a very cool girlfriend!

One of the questions that fascinated me was the relation of personal identity to the memories others have of you.

One of the questions that fascinated me was the relation of personal identity to the memories others have of you. — Mitchell

Soderbergh's movie also explored this angle. I've read the book the two movies are based on by Stanislaw Lem, and the focus was a bit different. Lem was interested in whether communication was possible with a truly alien being. The characters in the book struggled with the failure of science and all other attempts to communicate with the sentient ocean on Solaris. It was clearly intelligent in some manner, but it was so different from anything humans understood.

As a last resort, they had their brain scans beamed over the ocean, after which recreations of lost loved ones from memory started to appear. The guess was that the ocean was attempting to communicate in it's own way, but didn't understand humans anymore than we had understood it, thus resulting in the strange and painful reunions.

I've read that Solaris can be better understood if one assumes the planet to be the 'self'.

One of my favorite films.

I have a professor friend who teaches "Philosophy in Film" course, in which she showed Tarkovski's version. She claimed that Lem was distraught that "they turned my book into a love story!!" I don't know whether that is apocryphal or not.

Is this the original version of Danny Boyle's Sunshine