Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire.
He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle.
His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies.
He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times.
In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.
His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe.
They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books.
Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.
Multiple translated versions of his works exist.
A Hungarian journalist who is about to start a family journeys to the United States in the hopes of finding his own father, a scientist who went missing in the 1970s while working on a top secret military research project that examined 'voices' from outer space.
An account of the life and work of the Polish writer Stanisław Lem (1921-2006), a key figure in science fiction literature involved in mysteries and paradoxes that need to be enlightened.
Animated short fim based on a short story by Stanisław Lem. Hydrops, the king of Aquacia, has ordered to his advisors to create a new heir and successor to his throne. The rivalry and intrigues between the advisors, concentrating on the good qualities that the future perfect prince should have, finally leads to the implantation of a matrix for loving small things. This is how a new obsession will be born...
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn't appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to humanity in a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research. As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book becomes increasingly well-known, raising numerous controversies. Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.
Shot while the director was still in college, the film is a remake of the Russian film of the same name. The man's dead ex who had committed suicide appears in front of him. The ghost has a cross-like scar on her wrist.
The astronaut Chris Kelvin receives a visit from a woman who is a double of his dead wife. This story, told in Stanislaw Lem’s eponymous novel, was once adapted into the film Solaris by the legendary Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. According to Deimantas Narkevičius, Tarkovsky was not as critical of the increasing impact of electronic media on relationships and on the complex nature of human memory as Lem, the original author of the story. In this video, the actor Donatas Banionis reappears in his role as Kelvin, forty years after Tarkovsky’s film was shot. Revisiting Solaris is based on the last chapter of Lem's book, which had been left out of Tarkovsky’s adaptation. In order to visualize the landscape of Solaris and expose complex specters of the past, Narkevičius combines the new footage and a series of photos from 1905 taken by the Lithuanian painter and composer Mykolojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Pirx, an experienced pilot, is hired to go on a top-secret mission to evaluate some 'nonlinears' (an experimental model of android) for use as crewmembers on future space flights. Pirx and this intriguing crew are sent out to launch two satellites into the rings of Saturn, but he is determined to find out and identify a hostile unhuman coworker among them.
A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
Based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem (Solaris). The main character, race car driver Ryszard Fox, is involved in many car accidents. After each car crash he gets a transplant for one or another internal organ. After a while there is a question: Who really is Ryszard Fox?
Engineer Ijon Tichy is called in to help with a malfunctioning electronic brain.
The year is 2163. Starship Ikaria XB 1 embarks on a mission deep into space in search of alien life. During their perilous journey the crew confront the effects of a malignant dark star, the destructive legacy of the 20th century and, ultimately, the limits of their own sanity.
Ijon Tichy arrives on a new planet in a single-person spacecraft. His habits and fantasies are with him. The aliens recreate the sex bomb from the poster that could be found in the cabin of his spacecraft. Then, they present him a live dummy. A male-female evening in space with some pre-war music hits becomes possible.
A mysterious magnetic spool found during a construction project is discovered to have originated from Venus. A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the spool and the race that created it.