#1215: TARR, Béla and HRANITZKY, Ágnes: Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)

TARR, Béla and HRANITZKY, Ágnes (Hungary)
Werckmeister Harmonies [2000]
Spine #1215
Blu-ray


This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown time in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus — complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince — arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens that builds inexorably toward violence. In thirty-nine hypnotic long takes engraved in ghostly black and white, auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky conjure an apocalyptic vision of dreamlike dread and fathomless beauty.

145 minutes
Monaural
Black and White
in Hungarian
1:66:1
Criterion Release 2024

Béla Tarr was 45 and Ágnes Hranitzky was 55 when they directed Werckmeister Harmonies.

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Commentary

Video tribute

Documentary 1

Documentary 2

Documentary 3

Controversial altered ending

Theatrical trailer


Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

By Spine #

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