Two questions.... that hopefully haven't been asked here 100 times
But probably have.
Just re-watched this for the first time in years. It's great, of course, but two things distracted me.
1. The film Berton shot over the surface of Solaris doesn't reveal any of the manifestations he saw. This suggests they're a psychological thing but obviously we later learn they're a physical reality. If so, why didn't the things Berton see appear on film? It can't be that they need to be experienced first hand because Kelvin sees Gibarian's visitor in the filmed message left for him.
2. By modern standards there are a lot of anomalies in terms of the customs and realities of being in space. I wonder if there's meaning behind the decisions to, say, dress the crew in their own casual clothes, leather jackets and boots. Occasionally they wear flight suits or whatever but mostly just what you'd wear when out and about or at home. I can't think why anyone would ever need a leather jacket on a space station. There are candles in use in the oak paneled library of the (scientific research) space station, and characters smoke prodigiously (ok things were different in the 70's, but I'd be very surprised if any astronaut or cosmonaut has ever smoked in space). I wonder if Tarkovsky included incongruous details like this (1) without realising they were incongruous (something I instinctively think unlikely), (2) to use their contradictory presence to make a thematic point or (3) on some sort of nonspecific creative whim... or something else entirely...?