Werckmeister Harmonies released in the Criterion Collection on April 16th.
Béla Tarr is an auteur with a reputation befitting the Criterion Collection. The Hungarian filmmaker utilizes beautiful visuals — typically in black and white — and unsettling realism to explore the unpleasant truths of existence. It’s fitting that his first feature to receive a proper physical release in the Criterion Collection is 2000’s whimsical mystery The Werckmeister Harmonies. Even better, we get two for the price of one with the inclusion of his debut feature, Family Nest, included in the special features.
Werckmeister Harmonies Plot
A peculiar circus, consisting of a massive and mysterious whale, sets up shop in the center of a small town. As curious spectators flock to the unconventional attraction, a primal violence bubbles to the surface of the sleepy village.
The Critique
A spectator examines the mysterious whale.
Also Read: Criterion Collection: The Runner Review
Werchmeister Harmonies...
Béla Tarr is an auteur with a reputation befitting the Criterion Collection. The Hungarian filmmaker utilizes beautiful visuals — typically in black and white — and unsettling realism to explore the unpleasant truths of existence. It’s fitting that his first feature to receive a proper physical release in the Criterion Collection is 2000’s whimsical mystery The Werckmeister Harmonies. Even better, we get two for the price of one with the inclusion of his debut feature, Family Nest, included in the special features.
Werckmeister Harmonies Plot
A peculiar circus, consisting of a massive and mysterious whale, sets up shop in the center of a small town. As curious spectators flock to the unconventional attraction, a primal violence bubbles to the surface of the sleepy village.
The Critique
A spectator examines the mysterious whale.
Also Read: Criterion Collection: The Runner Review
Werchmeister Harmonies...
- 4/30/2024
- by Joshua Ryan
- FandomWire
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
— John Cage
Sátántangó’s first few minutes provide an unsubtle hint that we’re in for a slow and gloomy slog, though you would expect that from any film by Béla Tarr. The Hungarian master, currently retired (he insists), is an international star who never set out to make a crowd-pleaser, even if his primary characters are pleasure-seeking proles at large in the swampy ruins of the post-Communist Eastern European Bloc.
Sátántangó commences with a wide, stagnant shot over a muddy paddock, a congregation of cows rooted in puddles in the near distance. The cows are themselves pretty interesting to observe, especially as one or two appear aware of the camera. They saunter toward the edges of the frame, and the camera bestirs itself,...
— John Cage
Sátántangó’s first few minutes provide an unsubtle hint that we’re in for a slow and gloomy slog, though you would expect that from any film by Béla Tarr. The Hungarian master, currently retired (he insists), is an international star who never set out to make a crowd-pleaser, even if his primary characters are pleasure-seeking proles at large in the swampy ruins of the post-Communist Eastern European Bloc.
Sátántangó commences with a wide, stagnant shot over a muddy paddock, a congregation of cows rooted in puddles in the near distance. The cows are themselves pretty interesting to observe, especially as one or two appear aware of the camera. They saunter toward the edges of the frame, and the camera bestirs itself,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Jessica Almereyda
- The Film Stage
Béla Tarr Set For European Film Awards Honor
Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award of the Academy President and Board at this year’s European Film Awards. Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients are Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda, and Costa-Gavras. Tarr is best known for his 1994 feature Sátántangó, a 450-minute adaptation of the novel by László Krasznahorkai. The film won the Grand Prix of the Jury at the Budapest Hungarian Film Week and quickly reached cult status, often referred to as one of the most important films of the 1990s. This year’s European Film Awards take place in Berlin on December 9.
‘Aftersun’ Leads 2023 BAFTA Scotland Awards
Charlotte Well’s debut feature, Aftersun, leads this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards with five nominations. The film has been nominated in the following categories: Actor Film, Actress Film,...
Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award of the Academy President and Board at this year’s European Film Awards. Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients are Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda, and Costa-Gavras. Tarr is best known for his 1994 feature Sátántangó, a 450-minute adaptation of the novel by László Krasznahorkai. The film won the Grand Prix of the Jury at the Budapest Hungarian Film Week and quickly reached cult status, often referred to as one of the most important films of the 1990s. This year’s European Film Awards take place in Berlin on December 9.
‘Aftersun’ Leads 2023 BAFTA Scotland Awards
Charlotte Well’s debut feature, Aftersun, leads this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards with five nominations. The film has been nominated in the following categories: Actor Film, Actress Film,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Tarr to receive Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board.
Hungarian director Béla Tarr is to receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at this year’s European Film Awards.
Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition. Previous recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.
Efa said it wished to pay special tribute to an “outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide.”
Tarr made his...
Hungarian director Béla Tarr is to receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at this year’s European Film Awards.
Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition. Previous recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.
Efa said it wished to pay special tribute to an “outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide.”
Tarr made his...
- 10/11/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Hungarian director Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.
“With this award the European Film Academy (Efa) wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” Efa said on Wednesday. “Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.”
Born in Hungary, the auteur started experiments in filmmaking at the age of 16. His feature debut, Family Nest. In 1982, The Prefab People received a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival. Tarr followed that up with Almanac of Fall (1984) and Damnation, which was nominated for the first European Film Awards in 1988.
One of Tarr’s best-known films is Sátántangó,...
“With this award the European Film Academy (Efa) wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” Efa said on Wednesday. “Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.”
Born in Hungary, the auteur started experiments in filmmaking at the age of 16. His feature debut, Family Nest. In 1982, The Prefab People received a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival. Tarr followed that up with Almanac of Fall (1984) and Damnation, which was nominated for the first European Film Awards in 1988.
One of Tarr’s best-known films is Sátántangó,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Werckmeister Harmonies.Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) begins at closing time. Dousing the embers in his wood-burning stove, a weary bartender shouts at the gathered drunks to get out. Not yet, they say, there’s still one last thing left to do. And right on time arrives János (Lars Rudolph), a bug-eyed young man full of uncomplicated yet not entirely naïve wonder about the universe. He picks one drunk to be the sun, another the Earth, and a third to be the moon, and has them act out a swirling, swaying dance, the sun shining, the Earth revolving until, quite suddenly, János calls them to a stop: a lunar eclipse, wonder of wonders, has settled onto the Earth, blocking out the light of the sun, and calling the entire room to a hush. But then, says János, the moon passes, the sun returns, and all of them have “escaped the weight of darkness,...
- 6/12/2023
- MUBI
It’s been a good time to be a Béla Tarr fan. While the Hungarian master hasn’t made a full-fledged new feature since 2011’s The Turin Horse, we’ve seen recent restorations of Damnation, Sátántangó, and Twilight, for which he consulted on. Now, his mesmerizing turn-of-the-century masterpiece Werckmeister Harmonies, co-directed with Ágnes Hranitzky, has received a 4K restoration. Following a TIFF premiere last fall, Janus Films will release it in theaters starting later this month and the new trailer has landed.
Here’s the synopsis: “One of the major achievements of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy,...
Here’s the synopsis: “One of the major achievements of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy,...
- 5/8/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Few figures tower over contemporary cinema like Hungarian director Béla Tarr, even though Tarr hasn’t made a film since 2011’s “The Turin Horse.” Now, twenty-three years after its initial release, Tarr’s modern classic “Werckmeister Harmonies” gets a 4K restoration from Janus Films and a theatrical re-release to go with it.
Read More: ‘Twilight’ Trailer: György Fehér’s Underseen 1990 Serial Killer Classic Gets The 4K Treatment In NYC On April 21
Based on László Krasznahorkai‘s 1989 novel “The Melancholy Of Resistance,” “Harmonies” takes Tarr’s signature long-take style in exciting and evermore haunting directions.
Continue reading ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ Trailer: A New 4K Restoration Of Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzsky’s Modern Classic Hits NYC On May 26 at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Twilight’ Trailer: György Fehér’s Underseen 1990 Serial Killer Classic Gets The 4K Treatment In NYC On April 21
Based on László Krasznahorkai‘s 1989 novel “The Melancholy Of Resistance,” “Harmonies” takes Tarr’s signature long-take style in exciting and evermore haunting directions.
Continue reading ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ Trailer: A New 4K Restoration Of Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzsky’s Modern Classic Hits NYC On May 26 at The Playlist.
- 5/5/2023
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
A trailer has arrived for the 4K restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s 2000 film Werckmeister Harmonies from Janus Films. Based on the 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance by Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, the film will be re-released in New York later this month with more cities to follow. An official synopsis reads: One of the major achievements of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown […]
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/5/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A trailer has arrived for the 4K restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s 2000 film Werckmeister Harmonies from Janus Films. Based on the 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance by Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, the film will be re-released in New York later this month with more cities to follow. An official synopsis reads: One of the major achievements of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown […]
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/5/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
It’s Béla Tarr season this year, as not only is the Hungarian filmmaking making a rare appearance in the United States for a Los Angeles American Cinematheque retrospective of his work, but Janus Films is also re-releasing his 2000 masterpiece “Werckmeister Harmonies.”
Per distributor Janus Films, one of the major achievements of 21st-century cinema, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, “Werckmeister Harmonies” unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus — complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince — arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens, which builds inexorably toward violence and destruction. In 39 of his signature long takes, engraved in ghostly black and white, Tarr...
Per distributor Janus Films, one of the major achievements of 21st-century cinema, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, “Werckmeister Harmonies” unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus — complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince — arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens, which builds inexorably toward violence and destruction. In 39 of his signature long takes, engraved in ghostly black and white, Tarr...
- 5/5/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
In the opening shot of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, a man polishes the floor in a room walled with masterpieces. Writing about the scene for Mubi recently, the critic Joseph Owen noted that “the politics of this institution exist in a subterranean passage: between its low-paid maintenance jobs and its disreputable oil sponsorships.” Petrodollars aside, it’s an observation that speaks in some way to any number of Wiseman’s films: that the souls of the institutions he so dedicatedly depicts are neither the heads on top, the public face or the multitude of working parts below but something malleable and indefinable in the middle.
City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
In the opening shot of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, a man polishes the floor in a room walled with masterpieces. Writing about the scene for Mubi recently, the critic Joseph Owen noted that “the politics of this institution exist in a subterranean passage: between its low-paid maintenance jobs and its disreputable oil sponsorships.” Petrodollars aside, it’s an observation that speaks in some way to any number of Wiseman’s films: that the souls of the institutions he so dedicatedly depicts are neither the heads on top, the public face or the multitude of working parts below but something malleable and indefinable in the middle.
- 10/30/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Madeleine Lim's Sambal Belacan (1997)After two decades of censorship by the Singapore government, Madeleine Lim's 1997 film Sambal Belacan will be screened in Singapore. The film, "a personal, intertextual, and poetic document about three Southeast Asian lesbians who discuss the social and political climate of Singapore," has previously only been shown in underground viewings. Meanwhile, The Meg 2 has found its director: Ben Wheatley, whose adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca recently debuted on Netflix. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Carlo Mirabella-Davis's thriller Swallow, which follows a pregnant housewife's stomach-churning struggle for bodily autonomy. This Halloween, watch the film on Mubi. Béla Tarr's 1988 film Damnation has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by the Hungarian National Film Institute. Co-written by frequent collaborator László Krasznahorkai, the film...
- 10/28/2020
- MUBI
On the heels of the recent 20th anniversary restoration of his magnum opens Sátántangó, another Béla Tarr gem has been given a new coat of paint. His 1998 feature Damnation has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by the Hungarian National Film Institute – Film Archive under the supervision of Béla Tarr. Ahead of a release in Virtual Cinemas beginning this week from Arbelos Films, a new trailer has arrived.
The first of his internationally acclaimed trilogy of films written in collaboration with author László Krasznahorkai, Damnation (Kárhozat) chronicles the doomed affair between bar Titanik regular Karrer (Sátántangó’s Miklós B. Székely) and the cruel cabaret singer (Vali Kerekes) he pines for while scheming to displace her brutish husband (György Cserhalmi). As Arbelos notes, “A poignant Communism allegory that solidified Tarr’s unique aesthetic, Damnation is photographed in an exquisitely black & white palette underscored by the mesmerizing long...
The first of his internationally acclaimed trilogy of films written in collaboration with author László Krasznahorkai, Damnation (Kárhozat) chronicles the doomed affair between bar Titanik regular Karrer (Sátántangó’s Miklós B. Székely) and the cruel cabaret singer (Vali Kerekes) he pines for while scheming to displace her brutish husband (György Cserhalmi). As Arbelos notes, “A poignant Communism allegory that solidified Tarr’s unique aesthetic, Damnation is photographed in an exquisitely black & white palette underscored by the mesmerizing long...
- 10/26/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
"I'd do the basest things to make you choose me." Arbelos Films has unveiled a brand new official trailer for a 4K restoration re-release of a film titled Damnation, originally called Kárhozat in Hungarian. A mid-career masterwork by legendary Hungarian art house auteur Béla Tarr and the first of his internationally acclaimed trilogy of films written in collaboration with author László Krasznahorkai (in addition to the film Sátántangó), Damnation chronicles the doomed affair between bar Titanik regular Karrer (Sátántangó’s Miklós B. Székely) and the cruel cabaret singer (Vali Kerekes) he pines for while scheming to displace her brutish husband (György Cserhalmi). Described as "a poignant Communism allegory that solidified Tarr's unique aesthetic, Damnation is photographed in an exquisitely black & white palette underscored by the mesmerizing long takes that would come to be his trademark." Tarr's Damnation has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by the...
- 10/26/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung is a Revival selection Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Film at Lincoln Center has announced the Revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival will include Terence Dixon’s Meeting The Man: James Baldwin In Paris, shot by Jack Hazan and Steve McQueen Selects: Jean Vigo’s Zero For Conduct (Zéro De Conduite) available for free 'limited rentals'. Other highlights in the program are Joyce Chopra’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams; William Klein’s Muhammad Ali, The Greatest; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers Of Shanghai with Tony Leung, Michiko Hada and Vicky Wei; Béla Tarr’s collaboration with László Krasznahorkai on Damnation, and Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Leung. Wong Kar Wai was the Artistic Director for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute...
Film at Lincoln Center has announced the Revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival will include Terence Dixon’s Meeting The Man: James Baldwin In Paris, shot by Jack Hazan and Steve McQueen Selects: Jean Vigo’s Zero For Conduct (Zéro De Conduite) available for free 'limited rentals'. Other highlights in the program are Joyce Chopra’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams; William Klein’s Muhammad Ali, The Greatest; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers Of Shanghai with Tony Leung, Michiko Hada and Vicky Wei; Béla Tarr’s collaboration with László Krasznahorkai on Damnation, and Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Leung. Wong Kar Wai was the Artistic Director for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute...
- 8/24/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The New York Film Festival is rolling out a “reshaped” version of its Revivals section for this year’s edition of the festival, with a rich assortment of repertory cinema that runs the gamut from beloved classics to rarities seeking new life. The lineup includes a Tony Leung double bill, thanks to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai” and Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” while Joyce Chopra’s 1986 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, “Smooth Talk,” shows off a breakout performance by a young Laura Dern.
Other highlights include Jia Zhangke’s rarely screened “Xiao Wu,” Mohammad Reza Aslani’s rediscovered “The Chess Game of the Wind,” and Béla Tarr’s black-and-white noir, “Damnation.” Opening night filmmaker Steve McQueen also had a hand in the selection: he’s opted to screen Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct,” which he says inspired his latest project, a five-film anthology series,...
Other highlights include Jia Zhangke’s rarely screened “Xiao Wu,” Mohammad Reza Aslani’s rediscovered “The Chess Game of the Wind,” and Béla Tarr’s black-and-white noir, “Damnation.” Opening night filmmaker Steve McQueen also had a hand in the selection: he’s opted to screen Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct,” which he says inspired his latest project, a five-film anthology series,...
- 8/18/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
As far as black and white Hungarian dramas that push into the eight-hour running-time range, Bela Tarr’s epic “Sátántangó” doesn’t have much in the way of competition. And while many of its basic elements — its length, its style, its subject matter — might sound prohibitive, the wide-ranging study of life in a rural village during the final days of Communism is one of cinema’s most fascinating and immersive films.
It’s also one that’s rarely seen, thanks in part to that 439-minute length (not so appealing for many theaters) and a very brief home video release (many fans have been forced to watch it on VHS bootlegs). But that’s all changing, thanks to a brand-new restoration that will soon hit theaters and eventually be available for Blu-ray consumption. Fans of Tarr can thank Arbelos Films, which worked with the Hungarian Filmlab to restore the film from its original 35mm camera negative.
It’s also one that’s rarely seen, thanks in part to that 439-minute length (not so appealing for many theaters) and a very brief home video release (many fans have been forced to watch it on VHS bootlegs). But that’s all changing, thanks to a brand-new restoration that will soon hit theaters and eventually be available for Blu-ray consumption. Fans of Tarr can thank Arbelos Films, which worked with the Hungarian Filmlab to restore the film from its original 35mm camera negative.
- 9/27/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Unlike most filmmakers who retire, Béla Tarr has actually stuck to this word. 2011’s “The Turin Horse” was indeed the Hungarian luminary’s final work, and a fitting swan song for a decades-long career that spawned several masterworks. At the top of that list is “Sátántangó,” Tarr’s 432-minute opus, which remains difficult to see 24 years after it was first released and has never been released on Blu-ray.
Until now, that is: Arbelos Films is working on a 4K restoration of the film, which will be re-released in theaters early next year with a Blu-ray/VOD release to follow. A boutique film distributor and digital restoration company, the Los Angeles–based Arbelos is also working on a 4K update of Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie.”
Read More:Bela Tarr Speaks: The Retired Hungarian Director Explains Why He Shut Down His Film School Project
Set in a remote Hungarian village whose...
Until now, that is: Arbelos Films is working on a 4K restoration of the film, which will be re-released in theaters early next year with a Blu-ray/VOD release to follow. A boutique film distributor and digital restoration company, the Los Angeles–based Arbelos is also working on a 4K update of Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie.”
Read More:Bela Tarr Speaks: The Retired Hungarian Director Explains Why He Shut Down His Film School Project
Set in a remote Hungarian village whose...
- 1/18/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Béla Tarr © Zero Fiction FilmThe Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr bid a farewell to the active filmmaking at the age of 55 with the 146-minute long reckoning The Turin Horse (2011), consisting of 30 takes. His filmography counts nine features that elevated him into the pantheon of world cinema, earning Tarr epithets as legend, master, cult or visionary, among others. Tarr started shooting films as an amateur at the age of 16, and at 22 he got a shot to make a feature-length film, Family Nest (1979), at Béla Balázs Studio. The early stage of the filmmaker's career marked by Family Nest, The Outsider (1981) and The Prefab People (1982) is defined by social themes and documentary style akin to cinéma vérité. However, the core of his work features his singular aesthetics and bleak visions of the post-communist landscape, notably in Damnation (1988), the cinephiliac 432-minute long treat Sátántangó (1994), and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000). His distinctive style stems from black and white,...
- 7/18/2016
- MUBI
Not yet thirty, the Hungarian director Béla Tarr was already making a name for himself both at home and abroad. During the late 1970s and early 1980s his early features earned prizes at film festivals west of the Iron Curtain; in Hungary, however, he remained a marginal figure as the regime did not take kindly to his films’ openly dissenting spirit. This rendered it increasingly difficult for him to make films in his native country and following the independently funded Damnation, he moved to West Berlin, only returning after the dissolution of the Eastern bloc. Upon his return, Tarr got to work on a project that had been gestating for a decade: the 432-minute Satantango, which was released in 1994 and became a cult sensation among cinephiles. The resulting recognition, together with the enthusiastic endorsement of his work by prominent peers such as Susan Sontag and Gus van Sant, turned the forever uncompromising,...
- 3/10/2016
- by Michael Guarneri
- MUBI
Special Mention: Werckmeister Harmonies
Directed by Bela Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky
Written by László Krasznahorkai and Bela Tarr
2000, Hungary / Italy / Germany
Genre: Emotional Horror
Bela Tarr is a filmmaker whose work is a highly acquired taste, but as a metaphysical horror story, Werckmeister Harmonies is an utter masterpiece that should appeal to most cinephiles. The film title refers to the 17th-century German organist-composer Andreas Werckmeister, esteemed for his influential structure and harmony of music. Harmonies is strung together like a magnificent symphony working on the viewer’s emotions over long stretches of time even when the viewer is unaware of what’s going on. Attempting to make sense of Tarr’s movies in strict narrative terms is not the best way to go about watching his films; but regardless if you come away understanding Harmonies or not, you won’t soon forget the film. Harmonies is a technical triumph, shot...
Directed by Bela Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky
Written by László Krasznahorkai and Bela Tarr
2000, Hungary / Italy / Germany
Genre: Emotional Horror
Bela Tarr is a filmmaker whose work is a highly acquired taste, but as a metaphysical horror story, Werckmeister Harmonies is an utter masterpiece that should appeal to most cinephiles. The film title refers to the 17th-century German organist-composer Andreas Werckmeister, esteemed for his influential structure and harmony of music. Harmonies is strung together like a magnificent symphony working on the viewer’s emotions over long stretches of time even when the viewer is unaware of what’s going on. Attempting to make sense of Tarr’s movies in strict narrative terms is not the best way to go about watching his films; but regardless if you come away understanding Harmonies or not, you won’t soon forget the film. Harmonies is a technical triumph, shot...
- 10/30/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
The hardest part about choosing my favourite horror films of all time, is deciding what stays and what goes. I started with a list that featured over 200 titles, and I think it took me more time to pick and choose between them, than it did to actually sit down and write each capsule review. In order to hold on to my sanity, I decided to not include short films, documentaries, television mini-series and animated films. I also had to draw the line at some point in deciding if certain movies should be considered horror or not. In such cases where I was split down the middle in deciding, I let IMDb be the judge for me. And in some cases, I’ve included these titles as special mentions. Long story short, I can’t include every movie I like, and I have to draw the line somewhere. With that said,...
- 10/31/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
3. Eyes Without a Face
Written by Georges Franju, Jean Redon, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, and Claude Sautet
Directed by Georges Franju
France and Italy, 1960
The idea of what a quintessential French horror film might be, especially in the middle of the last century, would be a conflicting concept, the French being culturally revered as the custodians of the high-brow, the poetically human, and the avant-garde (we even import the word in its French form); horror is a genre maintained to provoke the base and primal, better left to B-movie thrills. Enter Georges Franju, a co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française, to helm Eyes Without a Face, a work to arrive with scorn from both French and Anglophone audiences as it had not been crafted to either of their palettes, but rather an amalgamation of tastes and something completely new.
When Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) identifies the body of his daughter Christiane...
Written by Georges Franju, Jean Redon, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, and Claude Sautet
Directed by Georges Franju
France and Italy, 1960
The idea of what a quintessential French horror film might be, especially in the middle of the last century, would be a conflicting concept, the French being culturally revered as the custodians of the high-brow, the poetically human, and the avant-garde (we even import the word in its French form); horror is a genre maintained to provoke the base and primal, better left to B-movie thrills. Enter Georges Franju, a co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française, to helm Eyes Without a Face, a work to arrive with scorn from both French and Anglophone audiences as it had not been crafted to either of their palettes, but rather an amalgamation of tastes and something completely new.
When Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) identifies the body of his daughter Christiane...
- 10/31/2013
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
25: The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
2012, USA
The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have been a let down, the first half is incredibly ambitious to say the least. The opening sequence, a gravity-defying skyjacking, is a tour de force – wildly choreographed, vivid, visceral, and chock full of suspense. That aerial extraction alone is worth the price of admission. Production-wise, effects-wise, Nolan’s movie (with sequences shot with Imax cameras) is staggering. There was an opportunity here for Nolan to stretch the boundaries of what is possible in the genre, alas, the final act becomes a little too conventional – complete with a doomsday device and a ticking-clock countdown. But for every quibble,...
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
2012, USA
The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have been a let down, the first half is incredibly ambitious to say the least. The opening sequence, a gravity-defying skyjacking, is a tour de force – wildly choreographed, vivid, visceral, and chock full of suspense. That aerial extraction alone is worth the price of admission. Production-wise, effects-wise, Nolan’s movie (with sequences shot with Imax cameras) is staggering. There was an opportunity here for Nolan to stretch the boundaries of what is possible in the genre, alas, the final act becomes a little too conventional – complete with a doomsday device and a ticking-clock countdown. But for every quibble,...
- 12/23/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Operating somewhere between Bergman and Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr has been a wholly original inspiration for remodernist filmmakers for his spiritually exploratory form of cinema that revels in extremely long takes and the dire desolation of humanity itself (see his 7.5 hour epic Sátántangó). With his longtime editor, Ágnes Hranitzky, Tarr co-directed what may turn out to be his final feature, the brutal, coldly intense paragon of philosophic, but to-the-point filmmaking, The Turin Horse. Pushing his craft to the bleakest edge of mankind, Tarr masterfully paints the maddening monotony and utter futility of waking up day after day in austere black in white. This is dark stuff, people. Real dark. And sadly, Tarr is said to be leaving cinema (directing) on this high, bleak note.
The film begins with a spoken word preface that tells the tale of Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1889 in Turin, Italy, observing a cab driver whipping his stubborn horse.
The film begins with a spoken word preface that tells the tale of Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1889 in Turin, Italy, observing a cab driver whipping his stubborn horse.
- 7/17/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Second #4465, 74:25
1. Dorothy and Frank split their angles of vision; everyone is watching everyone. But it is Dorothy who suggests and defines the off-screen space, the space where Donny is kept behind a closed door.
2. Ben has just said, to one of the Party Girls, “Darling, could you bring some glasses, and we’ll have a beer with Frank. Please, sit down.”
3. Ben’s quiet formalism is not at all ironic. Rather, his decorum (which Frank calls “suave”) suggests that there is a proper and an improper way to conduct matters of evil in this world, and his way is proper. Glasses shall be provided. Beer shall be poured.
4. In the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai’s novel Satantango (1985; translated in 2012), a character fascinated with magazine photo spreads on “the wars in Asia” becomes absorbed by one photograph in particular,
an aerial shot, that greatly appealed to him: an enormous, ragged...
1. Dorothy and Frank split their angles of vision; everyone is watching everyone. But it is Dorothy who suggests and defines the off-screen space, the space where Donny is kept behind a closed door.
2. Ben has just said, to one of the Party Girls, “Darling, could you bring some glasses, and we’ll have a beer with Frank. Please, sit down.”
3. Ben’s quiet formalism is not at all ironic. Rather, his decorum (which Frank calls “suave”) suggests that there is a proper and an improper way to conduct matters of evil in this world, and his way is proper. Glasses shall be provided. Beer shall be poured.
4. In the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai’s novel Satantango (1985; translated in 2012), a character fascinated with magazine photo spreads on “the wars in Asia” becomes absorbed by one photograph in particular,
an aerial shot, that greatly appealed to him: an enormous, ragged...
- 3/28/2012
- by Nicholas Rombes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
2012 promises to be a fantastic year in cinema. Not too long ago, we posted a list of thirty of our most anticipated films of 2012, and so I decided I would keep track of my favourite films released each month. Here are my five favourite films released in February.
1- The Turin Horse
Directed by Bela Tarr
Bela Tarr is known as the Hungarian master of minimalist cinema and one of the greatest moviemakers of all time. At age 56, he sadly announced his retirement and The Turin Horse to be his final film. What better way to retire than with a starkly beautiful and exceedingly demanding meditation on the human condition. Here Tarr co-directs with his wife, Ágnes Hranitzky, and shares writing credit with novelist László Krasznahorkai, with whom he adapted one of his classic works, 1994′s Sátántangó, among others. The Turin Horse is an dubious story of Nietzsche, when in...
1- The Turin Horse
Directed by Bela Tarr
Bela Tarr is known as the Hungarian master of minimalist cinema and one of the greatest moviemakers of all time. At age 56, he sadly announced his retirement and The Turin Horse to be his final film. What better way to retire than with a starkly beautiful and exceedingly demanding meditation on the human condition. Here Tarr co-directs with his wife, Ágnes Hranitzky, and shares writing credit with novelist László Krasznahorkai, with whom he adapted one of his classic works, 1994′s Sátántangó, among others. The Turin Horse is an dubious story of Nietzsche, when in...
- 3/4/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
The opening event of Béla Tarr‘s The Turin Horse may, perhaps, set up false expectations for many a viewer — set over a pitch-black screen, a coarse-grained voice-over recounts the demise of the life of Friedrich Nietzsche, which, according to the story (as well as popular belief, in some sense), was initiated by the philosopher’s lamented reaction to a cab driver’s whipping of an unresponsive horse. The incident took place on January 3, 1889, and was followed by ten years of catatonic inactivity for Nietzsche.
The most obvious reason why this introduction might tweak viewers’ expectations in the wrong direction is the presence of words. While the curtain-raiser is sustained, without imagery, by an off-screen articulation, the rest of the film — maybe ever-so-slightly ironically — is the exact opposite. It’s image-driven, with unimaginably long takes (often exceeding five minutes) and with an almost complete aversion to dialogue. Even the one...
The most obvious reason why this introduction might tweak viewers’ expectations in the wrong direction is the presence of words. While the curtain-raiser is sustained, without imagery, by an off-screen articulation, the rest of the film — maybe ever-so-slightly ironically — is the exact opposite. It’s image-driven, with unimaginably long takes (often exceeding five minutes) and with an almost complete aversion to dialogue. Even the one...
- 2/9/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
The Turin Horse
Directed by Béla Tarr
Written by Béla Tarr
Hungary, 2011
The Turin Horse is Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s first film since 2007. Working with frequent co-writer László Krasznahorkai, but without a novel as their source material for the first time in over a decade, Tarr uses the tale of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s horse as prologue for a despondent film in his signature long takes.
As the story goes and as Tarr’s own voiceover tells us in the beginning of the film, Nietzsche saw a horse being beaten. He ran to protect it, throwing his arms around the animal. For two days following he was mute and prostrate, and then suffered from dementia for the next ten years until his death. The horse at the center of Tarr’s film is owned by a husband and daughter who solely occupy the large majority of the screen-time. Living...
Directed by Béla Tarr
Written by Béla Tarr
Hungary, 2011
The Turin Horse is Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s first film since 2007. Working with frequent co-writer László Krasznahorkai, but without a novel as their source material for the first time in over a decade, Tarr uses the tale of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s horse as prologue for a despondent film in his signature long takes.
As the story goes and as Tarr’s own voiceover tells us in the beginning of the film, Nietzsche saw a horse being beaten. He ran to protect it, throwing his arms around the animal. For two days following he was mute and prostrate, and then suffered from dementia for the next ten years until his death. The horse at the center of Tarr’s film is owned by a husband and daughter who solely occupy the large majority of the screen-time. Living...
- 10/31/2011
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
Chantal Akerman (center), Almayer's Folly World Cinema Selections Almayer's Folly: Chantal Akerman loosely adapts Joseph Conrad’s novel set in Malaysia, the tragic tale of a failed European trader and his "mixed blood" daughter. Dir Chantal Akerman. Cast Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion, Zac Andrianasolo. Belgium/France. U.S. Premiere. Alps: Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos returns with a tale of a group offering an unusual service for grieving families: They inhabit the role of the recently deceased. Dir Yorgos Lanthimos. Scr Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Cast Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, Ariane Labed, Johnny Vekris. Greece/France. U.S. Premiere. CARRÉ Blanc: One of the strongest debuts in years, CARRÉ Blanc is a dystopian sci-fi vision of a world with limited resources and limitless cruelty. Dir/Scr Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. Cast Sami Bouajila, Julie Gayet, Jean-Pierre Andreani, Fejria Deliba, Valerie Bodson. France/Luxembourg/Russia/Belgium/Switzerland. The Day He Arrives:...
- 10/23/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
According to Bela Tarr, The Turin Horse is to be his last film and because of that, it is my most anticipated film of 2011. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this week, and a small mysterious (strange) trailer was released online.
The film is said to take inspiration from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who collapsed after attempting to save a horse from being cruelly beaten with a whip in the street. It tells the other side of the tale of the actual horse and his life with a farmer and daughter.
The film runs about two and half hours (which is actually quite short for the director), and was photographed by cinematographer Fred Keleman (The Man From London), scored by Mihály Víg and co-written by longtime Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai.
The film is said to take inspiration from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who collapsed after attempting to save a horse from being cruelly beaten with a whip in the street. It tells the other side of the tale of the actual horse and his life with a farmer and daughter.
The film runs about two and half hours (which is actually quite short for the director), and was photographed by cinematographer Fred Keleman (The Man From London), scored by Mihály Víg and co-written by longtime Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai.
- 2/16/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
This has got to be one of the strangest teaser trailers ever but then again Bela Tarr’s films do have a strange, disquieting effect. The Turin Horse is to be his last film (according to him) and it’ll premiere at the Berlin Film Festival tomorrow (15th Feb).
The film takes it inspiration from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who collapsed after attempting to save a horse from being cruelly beaten with a whip in the street. It tells the other side of the tale of the actual horse and his life with a farmer and daughter. Expect this one to be like Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthasar. In other words, you’ll cry your eyes out at the tough life of the horse and be inconsolable when the knackered old beast dies on screen.
Of course it’ll only appeal to fans of art-house cinema, but Tarr has made...
The film takes it inspiration from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who collapsed after attempting to save a horse from being cruelly beaten with a whip in the street. It tells the other side of the tale of the actual horse and his life with a farmer and daughter. Expect this one to be like Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthasar. In other words, you’ll cry your eyes out at the tough life of the horse and be inconsolable when the knackered old beast dies on screen.
Of course it’ll only appeal to fans of art-house cinema, but Tarr has made...
- 2/14/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Béla Tarr has quickly become one of the filmmakers that I’ve taken a great interest in as of late. He is one of the few genuinely visionary filmmakers but a highly acquired taste, and so Tarr’s reputation remains quasi-legendary. His metaphysical horror story, Werckmeister Harmonies was Tarr’s breakthrough to a cult following and landed on the number one spot of my “Best of the Decade” list. So it was rather disappointing when the filmmaker announced at the premiere of his previous film (The Man from London), that he was retiring from filmmaking and that his upcoming project would be his last.
Well yesterday it was announced that the project – his last film – titled The Turin Horse, would make its world premiere next month at the Berlin Film Festival, and we now have our first look at the film courtesy of [origo] filmklub.
The film runs about two and...
Well yesterday it was announced that the project – his last film – titled The Turin Horse, would make its world premiere next month at the Berlin Film Festival, and we now have our first look at the film courtesy of [origo] filmklub.
The film runs about two and...
- 1/20/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
- 11/27/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
- #98. The Turin Horse Director: Béla Tarr Writer(s): Tarr and László Krasznahorkai Producer: Gábor Téni (The Man From London)Distributor: Rights Available. The Gist: The film is freely inspired by an episode that marked the end of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s career. On January 3,1889, on the piazza Alberto in Turin, a weeping Nietzsche flung his arms around an exhausted and ill-treated carriage horse, then lost consciousness. After this event, the philosopher never wrote again and descended into madness and silence. From this starting point, The Turin Horse goes on to explore the lives of the coachman (Miroslav Krobot), his daughter (Erika Bók) and the horse in an atmosphere of poverty heralding the end of the worl Fact: Tarr will produce director Delta Kornel Mundruczo's next project. Why is it on the list?: Elizabeth Redleaf and Christine Kunewa Walker's new shingle Werc Werk Works will finance and
- 1/5/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
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