Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Directors:

Béla Tarr
Ágnes Hranitzky (co-director)

Writers:

László Krasznahorkai (novel)
László Krasznahorkai (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 February 2001 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost...

Plot Keywords:

Whale | Small Town | Circus | Long Take | Riot

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Lars Rudolph	...	János Valuska
Peter Fitz	...	György Eszter
Hanna Schygulla	...	Tünde Eszter
János Derzsi	...	Man In The Broad-Cloth Coat
Djoko Rosic	...	Man In Western Boots (as Djoko Rossich)
Tamás Wichmann	...	Man In The Sailor-Cap
Ferenc Kállai	...	Director
Mihály Kormos	...	Factotum
Putyi Horváth	...	Porter (as dr. Horváth Putyi)
Enikö Börcsök
Éva Almássy Albert	...	Aunt Piri (as Almási Albert Éva)
Irén Szajki	...	Mrs. Harrer
Alfréd Járai	...	Lajos Harrer
György Barkó	...	Mr. Nadabán
Lajos Dobák	...	Mr. Volent

Also Known As:

Die werckmeisterschen Harmonien (Germany)
Le armonie di Werckmeister (Italy)
Les Harmonies Werckmeister (France)
Werckmeister Harmonies (International: English title)

Runtime:

145 min

Country:

Hungary | Italy | Germany | France

Language:

Hungarian | Slovak

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:G (Quebec) (DVD rating) | Canada:PG (Alberta) (2003) | France:U | Netherlands:AL | UK:15

Company:

13 Productions

Trivia:

Ildikó Pécsi was set to play a role.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Janos finds Lajos, who is supposedly dead, yet you can clearly see the actor breathing.

Quotes:

János Valuska: You are the sun. The sun doesn't move, this is what it does. You are the Earth. The Earth is here for a start, and then the Earth moves around the sun. And now, we'll have an explanation that simple folks like us can also understand, about immortality...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Paris, je t'aime (2006)

Demanding, but rewarding

Imagine it. You spend four years on a project, with big funding hassles and changes in crew; and then, finally, after your film is very enthusiastically received at Cannes, the lab goes and destroys the only English-subtitled print before it's shown at the Edinburgh festival. Obviously Bela Tarr doesn't have his sorrows to seek.

Some might accuse the film--which centres on a rural town riven by the arrival of a "circus" consisting only of a dead white whale in a corrugated iron trailer and a character called "The Prince" whose nihilistic and inflammatory remarks incite riots--of veering very close to a parody of miserabilist cinema. Okay, so it's in black and white; there's a lot of mud, rubbish, smoke and wetness; there's not much dialogue between not very attractive people; every take lasts between five and ten minutes; and there are many scenes of people trudging through cold and bleak landscapes. (You'll never see so much trudging in a film.) Lars Rudolph, as the hero Janos, looks like a cross between a young Klaus Kinski and Frasier's brother, Niles, and spends most of the film wild-eyed and harried.

However, Tarr's distinctive style--exceptionally fluid and intricate tracking shots rendered in beautifully sharp monochrome--perfectly matches the grim story, which, as the director pointed out, explores the "boundaries between civilisation and barbarism". Any seemingly parodic moments are far outweighed by extremely powerful ones, notably the opening scene in a pub where the hero explains what an eclipse is using the sozzled bar clientele; the hero's deeply unsettling encounter with the "Prince"; and the mob's attack on a hospital.

Although the narrative falls apart a bit in its closing scenes, the film's images stay with the viewer in ways unmatched much recent cinema. This film demands your time and concentration, but rewards them; it has a unique and mesmerising rhythm. And the music, by Mihaly Vig, is simply beautiful.