Bela Tarr's films 

by Tatiana P. 

 

 

 

Bela Tarr's films are shot in black and white and they are mostly characterized by long takes of visual and dramatic lyricism. 

The Turin Horse, title based on Friedrich Nietzsche's involvement with a horse that he was trying to save, was the first movie of his that I watched  and a magical four-hour journey into his world began. 

The slow repetitive takes with tiny differences from one to another, describe the everyday life of a peasant and his daughter. A life with a routine, almost hypnotic and declining.  

Little things that become less and less from one day to the next.

The food, the fire, even the movements. Nobody talks. We just listen to the wind blowing  

The only break in the silence is the sudden appearance of an old man delivering a philosophical monologue, that brings the film’s underlying lyricism to the surface.

The horse is the allegorical meaning of something or somebody that needs to be saved. And the old man is maybe the one that knows how to do it. But finally, is there an easy way to salvation?

Two people, the peasant and his daughter, represent struggling people in general, while the old man is like a guide, or an inner voice trying to reveal a new vision - political, philosophical, existential.

Satan tango is a 7 hour epic. I watched it in three parts. This is a movie about everything. We are witnessing everyday life in a village, with people living in poverty trying to find  their place on earth, their hope. 

Each scene is a piece of directing and photography art. The actors are performing mostly silently, giving the sense of humbleness and destruction. When they talk they mostly express thoughts, fears and agonies in a philosophical way, while they walk or dance and drink at the village's tavern - and they were literally drunk while these shootings took place.

A persona appears at some point, like a leader that people needed to have. Is he good, or is he evil? Is he helping, or manipulating.? The almost divine sense that he reveals, will dramatically influence the life of the village. Like a microcosm of a nation that needs to be guided towards a powerful meaning, a vision, a better life. Is that possible ? Can we have hope that this world, our civilization will move forward without much disappointment and pain? 

Harmonies of Werckmeister is also about people trying to find hope. After the fall of communism a new theory must replace the ruined dream.

 A small Hungarian town is disturbed by the arrival of a circus featuring a giant dead whale displayed in a container. Meanwhile, an unreliable postman-like figure resembles a dysfunctional authority amid protesting people.

A movie full of symbols, one after another. Deeply political and again allegorical, like the two previous films. 

Is the new situation better than before ? Will it be able to get rid of contaminous wrecks ?

New theory of harmonies must replace the one that Werckmeister had established, as one character of the film expresses in a scene.

All of Tarr's  movies have profound meanings. He is not a straightforward storyteller.  

He is more like a dreamer with a realistic background, an artist who combines political and historical concerns with extraordinary cinematography.

Slow pace combined with the inner storm of the human soul and political turmoil.

Are we strong enough to overcome our demons? Can we find the wisdom needed to discover our own path to salvation? Is a truly enlightened guidance feasible ? And who can judge that...

And as Tarr puts it in one of his last interviews:

''..but the important thing is when you go to see a movie, the lights go out and then they come back on, you feel stronger and more human. That's all'.