Werckmeister Harmonies
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Movie Reviews of Werckmeister Harmonies
Movie Review: So Hungry
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, this film is from southern Hungary, have some money. Aesthetically, this film is unique. Astonishingly long takes, stark and drastic color (or lack thereof) everyone is talking about that and rightly so. Everyone is also talking about how surreal all of this is, but I would say that someone from Hungary would tell you quite the opposite. Hungarian history for the last 50 years has been surreal, this is a way of making sense of it.
There's a great deal going on, but I would say one of the primary themes is the contrast between natural order and man-made order. This is discussed directly by the uncle who is distraught over the sacrifice of the natural scales to the Werckmeister Scales. In the Werckmeister solution, the purer natural harmony is lost for the solution of a broader musical range. In the opening scene, Janos demonstrates the disturbing but temporary dark moment (an eclipse) that emerges from a natural order (de Revolutionibus). The opposing options are set up.
Relate this to recent Hungarian history where there were two significant political occurences. The first being the rise of Hitler. We can be pretty certain that the Prince is an easy stand in. This is also the eclipse, the temporary dark moment resulting from the tides of hate, opinion, and all the rest of our god-awfulness. The second major influence is the rise of Communism, which may be the darker of the two. This is the Werckmeister Harmony. A disruption of the natural order to broaden the extension of music. Here, I assume the Aunty is the stand in for Stalin and his ilk. Hungary was ripped apart, first by Hitler, then by subjugated to Communism, and this was a country with a long and proud history (and I don't mean that as a throwaway line, check it out, you'll be amazed by what the West ignores). During the past 50 years, it had been isolated, abandoned, and forgotten by the world. You see that mood aptly reflected through the movie.
In any case, the remaining figure is the Whale, which, while probably not God himself, reflects God's imagination, or, in an atheistic turn, the vastness of the natural order. If there is something to be known about Janos, it is his tendency to stand mouth agape and the wonder of natural order. This is established beautifully in the opening scene, further established in his first encounter with the whale, poigniantly counteracted when he is denied access to the whale by the mob, and puts him in the asylum when he sees the whale abandoned and desecrated at the end of the film.
This film is abstract, but I'm not sure a Hungarian would feel that way about it. The more irrational our situation, the more we need allegory to communicate. Is this any more of a bestiary than The Gulag Archipelago?
Movie Review: A stunning achievement, with few parallels in the history of cinema
Summary: 5 Stars
The relative calm and complacency of the citizens of a depressed village is disturbed when a circus rolls into town, bearing the enormous carcass of a whale and a mysterious (and unseen) man titled "the Prince." A young man, an idealist, observes the tragedy that arises when the hopeless residents of his village are stirred into action by this anarchistic "Prince". The violence is quelled by the army, and the young man is forced to flee the village, having been implicated without cause in the horrific events.
The plot is something of a mystery, and feels more like an allegory than a depiction of real events. Better, since Bela Tarr himself denies that his films are allegorical or symbolic, it feels like a depiction of events that do not take place in this world but in a parallel universe that is similar enough to this world as to resonate and to suggest themes of universal import about the human condition.
It is a wonderful thing that the films of Bela Tarr are finally being released on dvd, since so far they have only been screened at festivals and special venues. I had been lucky enough to catch Damnation at an arthouse theater in London when I happened to be there on vacation. Of his other films, most notably the epic Satantango (also soon to be released on dvd!) and Werckmeister Harmonies, I had only had the chance to read several rave reviews.
I just saw this one last night and was stunned. The film contains two of the most amazing scenes I have ever encountered in the cinema. The first is the opening scene, in which the drunk patrons of a bar become momentarily a microcosm of the universe, and present a kind of "moving image of eternity" that conveys the possibility of hope and transcendence in a dark cosmos. One might say the remainder of the film works to create a darkness that compares to the eclipse this scene depicts as passing, and to force the question whether the hope this first scene describes is merely the product of a naive and idealistic imagination. The other scene comes in the midst of a horrific and violent act of destruction, that is nevertheless cut short and transformed to a kind of reverence in response to a simple and profound vision of human fragility. It is an astonishing moment, that could only be invented and captured by a master filmmaker. My only complaint is that dvd is not the ideal format for this film, as it really should be seen in a darkened room on a vast screen, on which the light and shadow that are so carefully articulated in this film could play out in their full glory.
Movie Review: Circus of Doom
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie. I always wished that it would be released on video in shlocky packaging and re-titled "Circus of Doom," so people who wanted to rent a horror/thriller movie would instead get to watch a really weird, beautiful Hungarian allegory about the limits and consequences of enlightenment values. I'd like to think the movie is so powerful that they could bring whatever expectations they wanted to it and still be affected by it. Who knows?
Anyway, the plot of this movie concerns what happens when a mysterious side show of sorts comes to a desolate European town. No exact time or place is identified, and as I mentioned, the movie can be intellectualized and interpreted as entirely allegorical. But it's not dry; the mysterious story and eccentric characters are fascinating, the long-take camera shots are hypnotic in their beauty, and the score is one of my very very favorites (and I've heard a lot of movie scores). However, be warned: as someone once told me, as you watch Werckmeister Harmonies, you will feel the weight of time itself crushing you. This is all a part of the effect and meaning of the film. If you think you can get into it, if you like your movies slow, rich, and possibly devastating, you won't be bored. But this is a singular film, and isn't for everyone. Think of it as Circus of Doom, maybe it will help. Good luck!
Movie Review: Magnficent, astounding work from a true master
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an astounding film, one that should be watched as many times as you can manage, because you will see something new and beautiful in it. Tarr is one of the only filmmakers that shoots his films in long takes exclusively. While many filmmakers (Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Sokurov) would shoot long takes, there would be several short takes to offset them. Tarr's later day films don't do that. This film has only 39 cuts in the entire film (in a running time of 145 minutes). It gives a steady dirge like atmosphere, leading up to a finale that is brilliant as it is devastating. It took Tarr years before he finished this film (due to financial difficulties), but you wouldn't know it. The final film is absolutely seamless. I've seen Tarr's The Outsider, The Prefab People, Damnation, his "Visions of Europe" segment, and the magnum opus, Satantango. This film is a worthy addition to his legacy. This and Satantango are Tarr's best films. It's a remarkable piece of work....
Movie Review: BELA TARR, OPUS 7
Summary: 5 Stars
***** 2000. Co-written and directed by Hungarian director Béla Tarr. 145 minutes of perfection. With Werner Herzog, Sergei Parajanov and Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr belongs to the small group of visionary directors. During the projection of this film, I had the same feeling that I had a long time ago when I first saw Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, the feeling to be in the presence of a work of art whose beauty went beyond the screen. You can call Béla Tarr's film bizarre, strange, lyrical, philosophical or poetic if you want but you can't deny the fact that THE WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES is an undisputable masterpiece if you have an ounce of artistic sensibility.