Bela Tarr And Silence

Hungarian director Bela Tarr is a bit of an enigma. Having seen most of his mature film work, he seems to have come to the place where his surname can be grafted on to a thing as an adjective.

I.e.- just as film mysteries with an odd twist have become known as Hitchcockian, sci fi tales with a twist ending Serlingesque (after the creator of the tv show The Twilight Zone), and inhuman dramas with long deliberate pauses Kubrickian, so too is it right to call deliberately paced films that focus on the internal human predicament Tarrian.

Here is the opening to Werckmeister Harmonies, and note the way the young man is anally trying to orchestrate the others:


Here is a later scene from the film, wherein a mob stops momentarily upon a memorable discovery:


And here is Satantango's opening:


In all instances, watch how Tarr focuses on a thing or two. His long takes dwarf even those of Theo Angelopoulos.

Here is an interview with the man:

Werckmeister Harmonies

The review is up.

Werckmeister Harmonies

The review is online. Here's the opening:

Bela Tarr's 'Woody Allen' Moment

2007's The Man From London, by Bela Tarr, is the least of his 4 'mature' films I've seen, and for two major reasons.

1) the plot is not just confusing- as many critics claim of films they do not understand- just simplistic and not believable in its own diegetic timeline.

2) Tarr's film steals major visual and thematic elements from his earlier films- Satantango, Damnation, and Werckmeister Harmonies- and in far lesser ways, that it reminds me of Woody Allen's films of the last 17 years, as they mimic his 1977-92 Golden Age.

Along with the disappointment of N.B. Ceylan's last film, Three Monkeys, this pains me to say, but Tarr may be on a long downward slide from here. He just seems to have nothing left to say and no original ways to say it.

I just hope that when it's finally released on DVD, Theo Angelopoulos's The Dust Of Time does not also fail, like Tarr and Ceylan did.

Here's the trailer, and note it's nothing like the film, a clip of which follows below:


MAN FROM LONDON: Movie Trailer - The best home videos are here

Werckmeister Harmonies

Saw another Bela Tarr film today, Werckmeister Harmonies. Simply a great film.

Tarr uses only a few dozen shots in this near 2 1/2 hour long film, and, unlike other of his films, no one can accuse this film of lacking emotion. Here are the opening scenes and a great scene central to the film.





Tarr pushes the envelope even farther than Antonioni and Angelopoulos. This is not to say that he's better, simply extending the art. Can't wait till The Man From London hits DVD, and also look forward to his earlier works.