Bleakness of Béla Tarr, 5 essential works of the auteur
The Hungarian auteur acquired his acclaim as the ultimate auteur among the others through a constantly developing process of perfecting his cinematic language since the time he started his early experimentation on projecting a philosophical outlook and morbid realism of the human life, that gradually shaped his desolated cinematic universe as we experience today.
Though initiating his prominent career with 'Family Nest' in 1979 that portrayed the societal issues through an envisaging banality in familial plots, Tarr's exponential increase in the usage of hefty characters and an unearthly gloom that enveloped the ambiance of 'Autumn Almanac' in 1984 was very well the connotation on the abstract and darkly painful dramatics that was to come in waves from that point.
Béla Tarr never avows his early works which not only include his documentary-styled dawning artworks but quite surprisingly 'Family Nest' as well. And rightfully so, upon the dismayed experiencing of 'Autumn Almanac', the perception of his transitioned grammar in films sit in onto us reasonably. This was the grammar that earned his celebration all over the globe and which broke the shackles of constriction, not keeping his vision to the geographical boundaries of Hungary anymore.
The arthouse qualities shaping Tarr's features have never been formulated or applied before, making them distinctive constituents in moulding the dimensions of necessary pessimism in his films. Today on the 66th birthday of the renowned auteur, we look into 5 of his best films that earned him the dignified presence in the world of celluloid.
Brace yourselves for you are about to step into an existential dread where the luminosity of hope ceases to shimmer!
5. Autumn Almanac
Tarr's intimate examination of psychological decay in a rather infernal existence unlocks a non-explored methodology of filming a bunch of blatantly pessimistic lives where the scrutiny doesn't rely on expressionism at all.
Analogous to Bergman's skimming of his character's emotional plight, 'Autumn Almanac' disposes of its characters in additional chaos of brutal extensiveness where Tarr's five characters compete on the grounds of emotional dominance, only to the futility of wearing themselves out. With an utterly claustrophobic setting in an isolated apartment of a senile woman, the dramatics structures itself entirely on the conversational altercations and a heightened rigidity of personalities. Bela Tarr consciously strikes off any residual empathetic oddities that might have subsidized for the viewer's exuberance on the realistic fatalist personae who often display clarity of reasonable voyeurism.
Being absentees of morality, the condescending characters of Bela Tarr strongly allow his visual remarks of intensely saturated colours, probably for us to be evoked of the inevitable doom. Sexual discontent subtly lurks in the air from initial phases, only to get realistically dawned upon the screenplay as a byproduct of the stagnant plot's vehemence, which stays directly answerable for the disruption of your relishing of the dramatics.
The widely achieved climatic visualization of Tarr impresses us less with its cinematographic aspects and so much more with the astounding realism of the entire farce, that the overlaying apathy may automatically open up a stretch of retrospection while concurrently drawing your senses to its violently turbulent thespians.
4. Damnation
Drenched in the rain of sin and contempt, Béla Tarr's dire world of 'Damnation' oozes atmospheric blues of realism that is not encountered throughout the paraplegic runtime. Béla Tarr synchronizes his character's pessimism with elemental quirks of rain, muddy torrents and utter filth on the earth that always draws a clear distinction on the impending despair which follows by very shortly.
Tarr strikes minimalism; both in his visual and narrative aspects.
The auteur roisters in languid panning shots that frequently pause to observe water flowing down walls and unusual textures, offering a contemplative margin to the already poetic motion. Sequences unfold gradually and methodically. The doomed essence and steps in a room elapse from our vision only to reappear in mirrors and reflections. The velocity is pensive and frigid.
With an uprearing thematic presentation of loneliness and isolation, Béla Tarr depresses us more with a ubiquitous melancholy in an already existentially fatalist plot.
Gobbled up in solitude, Karrer, an alcoholic, plods his way through life in an existential numbness when his attempt on rekindling his relationship with a nightclub singer consequentially arises the acts of betrayal, sexual evocation and desperation as Karrer gets three days with his beloved on the account of the singer's husband's purposeful getaway.
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3. Werckmeister Harmonies
By imposing a clear inquisition on the existential eloquence, the kinetic motion of melancholy makes us gaze into absolute oblivion through the lens of the master filmmaker.
One of the most significant films in the auteur's oeuvre, 'Werckmeister Harmonies' deafening silence bears a certain power of persuasion that reflects on its desolated character in such a haunting town that it seems to be suspended in time. The crisp film's magnificence lies in its inexplicable plotting where a sense of impending doom takes possession of both our and the town's rationality.
An incubating study on the exploitation of beauty and dominance, the resiliency of the crowds and the impotency of an individual washed away by a current of great events, where Tarr's camera steadily works on the capturing of the most distressed intricacies in every sequence; often offering contemplation in the process.
While no less than an excruciating watch, it is positively a beautifully haunting one.
Stuffed with momentous imagery throughout, Tarr choreographs a tango in a spherical trajectory of a bunch of lowlife drunkards upon the arrival of a captivating giant whale who happens to be the nexus of all bafflement.
2. Satantango
"I'm just a big fucking maniac who believes in people", said the auteur just before the screening of a 4k restoration of his devilish masterpiece.
Béla Tarr concisely clarifies that he doesn't only film the outlook of a place but also the intricate existential prose of the people associated with it. Satantango is the most prominent precedence of the fact. The 7-hour magnum opus is a dark apocalyptic allegory of the Hungarian psyche, where gradually it stimulates a sensational irk within us.
Apart from being magically mesmerizing in its pictorial department, the master imbues us slowly about the absolute existential dread the Hungarian town has been caught in. Every betrayal, lie and deceit is made strikingly crystal, showing the inadequacy of faith and beliefs that a society fundamentally functions upon.
Deeming the film to be a psychological piece of art would in no means be an exaggeration or an analytic trait, rather it would be a cautionary note as it demands your utmost concentration which subsequently takes a mental toll.
Opening with a humongous 10 minutes opening sequence with stray animals and cattle loitering around, it gives an exquisitely composed dystopian feeling; which of course is the same for the rest of the film. An impenetrable gloom enveloping the film begins to devour us as we go with the nihilistic flow of the film. As accustomed to the works of Tarr, here also the master synchronizes the demographic conditions and natural elements with the psychological degradation of his hopeless characters.
With a runtime that pods the seven-and-a-half hour mark, the arthouse grandiose is widely regarded as the retired Hungarian filmmaker’s most formidable artistic declaration which is an extensive and bleak atmospheric piece that gulps the viewer and rambles along at an endurance-examining snail’s striding.
Those who persist the cold distance, to them it remains as a permanent and a blisteringly beautiful cinematic contemplation on human desperation.
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1. The Turin Horse
Béla Tarr's directorial swansong concludes his qualitative oeuvre with a striking and apocalyptic reality where we essentially experience the ascension of death.
The Turin Horse's very first frame is a cinematographic grandiosity which instantaneously let us comprehend the cyclical fable of daily drudgery that strips human life to its barest elements and banalities, prominently sketching the essential covering of it's fundamentals. While presenting a destructive critique to civilization throughout the centuries against authority, a hauntingly beautiful human condition has been portrayed.
The Turin Horse's experience is quite equivalent to that of a nightmare where we probably know we are in a suspended state of dream and yet are unable to retreat from the inferno and where gradually a sense of claustrophobia sets in.
With a gradual refusal of the horse's refusal to carry on working, we watch a man and a girl perform the daily chores over and over again, inviting an heightened sense of doomed monotony. Tarr not only emphasizes on the predictability of the actions, but sometimes a certain ironic and simple act of existential striding becomes an artistic grandiose with the perfect touch of an artist's spirituality. A cinematic experience that will stay eternal!
An auteur whose methods and cinematic language will stay unparalleled.
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