Defining Favourites: Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Béla Tarr's follow-up to his seven hour long magnum opus is captivating for the same reasons it is wholly devastating.
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Directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky
Screenplay by Béla Tarr, László Krasznahorkai, based on the novel The Melancholy of Resistance by Krasznahorkai
Produced by Béla Tarr
Starring Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla
Running Time: 145 minutes
Premiere Date: July 12, 2000
The most notable image of Werckmeister Harmonies, perhaps the first one that jumps at most people, is that of its protagonist János (Lars Rudolph) starring into the eye of a stuffed whale. The whale itself might be very emblematic of how Béla Tarr saw the world moving at that point, where it’s supposedly an image of innocence, for the whale itself isn’t able to do anything – and yet there’s so much madness happening in the world surrounding it. Being only the first of three films that Béla Tarr has made thus far ever since his seven hour long magnum opus in Satantango, it only feels fitting to watch Werckmeister Harmonies as a film that ponders about where else can one go from having made a film all about a crumbling world, to see everything that’s left of what once was.
Adapted from the novel The Melancholy of Resistance written by frequent collaborator and co-writer László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr paints a very bleak picture of Hungary – one that almost looks very apocalyptic. In fact, that’s the only feeling that one can gather as a result of the stark black-and- white cinematography as shadows are emphasized more than anything else in Béla Tarr’s portrait of a world in crisis. And yet, Béla Tarr still shows that it’s all very beautiful to the human eye. It’s beautiful in the sense that you’re seeing a world that’s constructed to represent humanity at a low point, and it also evokes a feeling of sadness for that same reason too.
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