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Werckmeister Harmonies

Werckmeister harmóniák

Germany, France, Italy, Hungary

2000

145 Min
Black and White
1.66:1
Slovak, Hungarian
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky

PROD Franz Goëss, Paul Saadoun, Miklós Szita, Joachim von Vietinghoff

SCR Péter Dobai, Gyuri Dósa Kiss, György Fehér, László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr

DP Patrick de Ranter, Miklós Gurbán, Erwin Lanzensberger, Gábor Medvigy, Emil Novák, Rob Tregenza

CAST Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, János Derzsi, Djoko Rosic

ED Ágnes Hranitzky

MUSIC Mihály Vig

Toronto (Masters), Berlinale, Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), Edinburgh, Rotterdam

Synopsis

The land is prey to unrest, gangs wander the streets of the capital, a catastrophe of terrifying proportions is imminent. Valuskha, a sometime postal worker and visionary, advocates a dogged utopia: he continues to go into raptures over the miracle of creation in his battle with obscurantism. –Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Director

Original

Béla Tarr

Born in 1955, Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr began making amateur films at the age of 16, later working as caretaker at a national House for Culture and Recreation. His amateur work brought him to the attention of the Bela Balazs Studios (named in honor of the Hungarian cinema theorist), which helped fund Tarr’s 1979 feature debut Family Nest, a work of socialist realism clearly influenced by the work of John Cassavettes. The 1981 piece The Outsider and the following year’s The Prefab People continued in much the same vein, but with a 1982 television adaptation of Macbeth, his work began to change dramatically; comprised of only two shots, the first shot (before the main title) was five minutes long, with the second 67 minutes in length. Not only did Tarr’s visual sensibility move from raw close-ups to more abstract mediums and long shots, but also his philosophical sensibility shifted from grim realism to a more metaphysical outlook similar to that of Andrei Tarkovsky. After 1984’s… read more

Original

Ágnes Hranitzky

Ágnes Hranitzky, Béla Tarr’’s collaborator, editor, co-director and wife. 

Wall

Displaying 4 of 56 wall posts.

Matthew_Lucas

5Feb12

Cosmic truths elude the common man as a small Hungarian community lurches toward unrest and revolution seemingly brought on by the arrival of a circus featuring a prince and a dead whale. Tarr's shots always linger a bit longer than one feels like they should, but the effect is intoxicating, creating a kind of poetry of the commonplace, often bordering on surrealism. Bears comparison to Tarkovsky.

Matt Reddick likes this

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mrminio

29Jan12

Enigmatic, mystical and beautiful - that's how I'd describe this movie in three words. Every shot is totally stunning. Incredible music and camera angles. Compelling, absorbing plot and scenario. Great storytelling and acting. Poetic cinema at its best.

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simonadp

24Jan12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRl3VQQ0GUA

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Michael Convery

9Jan12

Unfortunately, this film was a misfire for me. I went into it having recently seen and loved Tarr's Damnation and Almanac of Fall and was expecting something similar. It contains powerful moments undeniably, but they don't connect. It felt like a confused allegory that was bloated to the point that its parts deformed each other.

  • Matt Reddick

    9Feb12

    I saw it on dvd about 10 years ago and like you, was expecting "something"... and hated it. Didn't even finish it. I saw it in a theater last night and was overwhelmed by it. I agree that the moments don't connect and it's bloated but I believe that's intentional. Janosh/the professor are trying to make sense of things and to see beauty (a la the whale/harmonies) yet it all crumbles...

  • Picture of Michael Convery

    Michael Convery

    9Feb12

    I most definitely intend to watch Werckmeister Harmonies again.

Related Films

Fans

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Movie Posters of the Decade: A Follow-Up

By Adrian Curry on December 20, 2009

Last week I posted my selection of the decade's best movie posters: a post which attracted a remarkable amount of attention, not least from

read article

Lists

Displaying 5 of 312 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 4 of 8

"Werckmeister Harmonies"

By Jon on July 8, 2010

Béla Tarr is clearly unfamiliar with the tool of editing. His “Werckmeister Harmonies,” a trudging, lumbering 2 ½ hour slog very much reminiscent of the dead whale carcass at its center, is quite the…  read review

"In this awful, incomprehensible dusk..."

By deckard croix on June 29, 2010

Werckmeister Harmonies
2000

Directed by Bela Tarr
Written by Laszio Krasznahorkai
Music by Mihaly Vig
Cinematography by Patrick de Ranter
  read review

Searching for pre-Werckmeister harmonies

By arlinda on April 28, 2010

In Bela Tarr’s mysterious, slowly unfolding world, there is trouble ahead when a circus group comes to town. This is not a Fellinesque kind of circus. There are no sad clowns to be found here. Something…  read review

werckmeister harmonies

By rajiv ibrahim on January 18, 2010

This is one of the best film ever made by bella tarr.,

very unique and original, because bella tarr seems didn’t really care about the story (he admit that he despise the story in a film) and…  read review

Forum

Displaying 6 discussion topics.

Help me with Werckmeister Harmonies

25 posts by 12 people about 1 month ago

Werckmeister Harmonies

99 posts by 30 people 12 months ago

Where can I watch this?

4 posts by 3 people about 1 year ago

A stupid question about Werckmeister Harmonies

19 posts by 6 people about 1 year ago

The Melancholy of Resistance

20 posts by 5 people about 2 years ago

Essential scenes from The Werkmeister Harmonies

2 posts by 2 people almost 3 years ago