Béla Tarr - Closing the Circle
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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An exploration of the work of Hungarian visionary Bela Tarr and how his film philosophy is present throughout his filmography. - Фільми й анімація
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
great video. I like the tarr's quote about tarkosvky "Tarkovsky is more innocent than me. In his films rain purifies people. In mine it just makes mud."
I've studied in filmfactory, Bela's film school. It was a pleasure to have watched the films with the man. After watching he would break it down shot by shot in a follow up class.
u lucky bastard 🤝
You are so lucky to have witnessed such a thing!
@@AlbertKarhuFilms I wasn't present in the werkmeister class though, which is a bummer. But he also did turin horse and satantango.
The good about it is that he always has a practical explanation for almost anything film theorists fantacise about. For example, the werkmeister scene of the hospital, the ending with the old man. People have great tgeories, including myself, and his explanation is that there is a wall behind the character, therefore no way to procede, and that's why they go back. I call bs on that Bela! Eheheh
@@salvadorpalma8173i read, watched and listened to interviews with him, it's apparent he likes to piss off people tbh, but also hate to explain his films "what you get out of it is what's important" like a real post modernist artist.
@@TheGyroBarqusShow he does hate to talk about meaning. But when i say shot by shot breakdown, im talking abiut technical aspects. Like how it was shot and the difficulties of doing it.
I remember The Kino Corner called Satantango "the final boss of arthouse films."
I feel like the nearly 10-minute shot of cows acts as an audience filter.
Just like the beginning of Solaris!
What a hack. He needs to watch more films.
@@low3242 why do filmmakers and film enthusiasts hate each other so much lol
I remember tarkovsky once said "so the people who were there by mistake can get out before they loss more time" about why the opening scene of Stalker (if I'm not mistaken) is too slow
This is only one of it's possibilitites-I hope you realize it is beneath mention;The Least Important of QUALITIES . An intelligent, observant, thougtful person exposed to ideas from Neitschze to Foucault and beyond would have so much else to SEE!
People leave ? One wonders how they even came to a Tarr movie in the first place . Tarr shows what most edit for other people's comfort and storytelling ease .One of The Importance of Tarr is his embrace of the truth as it is lived everyday . He realizes that what most market/buyerseller people cutout IS the important IS important and it is the distaste we have for life and its boredoms that surrounds all our doings and thinking .
@5:12 the baby genuinely crying got me from having this in the background to being my absolute focus. That's not a fake cry. Good art. Poor baby...
As a hungarian film fan, I have to thank you to dedicate a video to one of the most important figures in the hungarian culture. There are countless remarkable directors all around the globe and I'm happy that like the others, we also have a director who's work is important and who's style can be recognized even outside of Europe
Do you have Hungarian recommendations? The last few I tried practically bored me to tears...
@@Rachelllllll2024 Oh my god, thank you for asking!
Firstly, if the hungarian filmindustry is good at something, its animated movies. the one that can be pretty popular since it's on Mubi is "Habfürdő" (Bubblebath), a movie with an extraordenary style and some catchy songs. And while talking about animation, I really recommend you the works of Marcell Jankovics: "János vitéz" ("Johnny Corncob"), "Fehérlófia" ("Son of the White Mare"), "Sisyphus". He sadly died 2 years ago. He was really the top of the animation industry.
Secondly, if we talk about classic hungarian movies, that are acknowledged around the globe, "Mephisto" is a mandatory watch. Fascinating. Just like an another big classic -which is a novel adaptation- "The Fifth Seal". This is a movie you will remember.
(On a sidenote, I have a great tip if you search for hungarian movies that are good to watch. Zoltán Latinovits. He was ajd still is THE greatest hungarian actor ever. If he's in a film, its almost guaranteed to be good. He plays a memorable role in "The Fifth Seal" too.)
Lastly, if I have to recommend contemporary movies, well, it'll be hard as they hardly ever get any english subtitles. But if you can manage it, I can recommend you my favourite director, Gábor Reisz and his films: "VAN valami furcsa és megmagyarázhatatlan" ("For Some Inexpicable Reason"), "Rossz versek" ("Bad poems"). Of course there are many other great movies, such as:
"Those Who Remained" by Barnabás Tóth
"On Body And Soul" by Ildikó Enyedi
"Mom and Other Loonies in the Family" by Ibolya Fekete (despite the title, it was one of the most hearthbreaking film for me from the list)
"Son of Saul" by László Nemes
"Carousel" by Zoltán Fábri
"The Witness" by Péter Bacsó
Sorry if my comment was a bit long or too detailed. It's just that I really adore both classic and contemporary hungarian cinema 😅.
I hope I could help you find some interesting picks 😊
@@tamasvigvari3365 Wow, thank you so much! I appreciate the lengthy response, don't apologize. 🙂 I started two the other day and couldn't finish them, but a few of your recommendations are already in my to-be-watched list. Hungary has always fascinated me and I'm surprised how few people talk about the beauty of the language. It's like music to my ears.
@@tamasvigvari3365 I have in my watchlist "Dolina 2007 Directed by Zoltán Kamondi" for years but i can't find subtitles... :(
@@tamasvigvari3365
Don’t be sorry!
You’ve just given an excellent description of, and list of both the animated history, with a list of recommendations, as well as live action films for anyone to plunge into, in what was that long of a comment, for how much information is within in it.
Thank you.
Just recently started reading Satantango after having watched Werckmeister Harmonies and read Melancholy of Resistance. I'm so happy your channel exists.
There wasn’t a single video that I didn’t enjoy watching, great work!
Sátántángó is my favourite film ever and i imagine will remain so
thanks for uploading this you’re the best video essayist on cinema
Incredible video! Keep up the great work! You have filled a hole in my heart left by Every Frame A Painting
You guys never disappoint us. Amazing work of Art
its analysis of art. why do people overuse this phrase it almost sounds meaningless now
One of the best channel out there
Bela Tarr is one of those slow-cinema filmmakers whose technique is so perfect that you cannot really know what makes his films so interesting and powerful. It is a mystery and he can be compared only perhaps to Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
I'd go for Lav Diaz who alike Tarr, doesn't compromise his frames. He, alike Tarr, makes us feel the importance of passage of time.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is top class too but I'd say they both pale in comparison to Bela Tarr... Sátántangó is one of the greatest achievements of Cinema.
@@Kieslowski1989 Why do you think they pale in comparison?
i think they're all in the same class of top tier filmmakers. Satantango is one of the greatest achievements (personally A Brighter Summer Day and Satantango are two of the best films in my opinion, however there are a handful equally great films too), but so is Evolution of a Filipino Family, From What is Before, Death in the Land of Encantos, and practically the whole of Apichatpong's filmography. Despite constantly making films that breaks boundaries not just in the medium of film but even on an experiential level as human beings, his latest film Memoria goes even further, its astonishing.
@@aravindnair6054 Let's make it clear, Evolution of a Filipino family, Norte the end of History, The Woman who left and A lullaby to the sorrowful mystery and all of Lav Diaz's filmography wouldn't have been in the first place if not for Sátántangó. Weerasethakul on the other hand is a completely different kinda filmmaker. His movies barring Uncle Boonmee, Tropical Malady and Syndromes and a century are not that great and somewhere lack in their execution.
Béla Tarr mastered slow almost documentary-like filmmaking with Sátántangó (the greatest achievement in European cinema since Jeanne Dielman)
Every scene was significant and altogether conveyed a lot of complex ideas of humanity and what is it to be. Constantly hindering his characters with moral ambiguities, sometimes psychological trauma, Béla Tarr remains as one of the greatest Auteurs of modern cinema.
Lav Diaz has only mastered frames. His view on the importance of passage of time is excellent but his storytelling is weak compared to Tarr.
Now coming to A Brighter Summer Day... It's excellent... A great use of camera techniques and Yang's mastery over character portrayal. One of the best movies of the 90s. I prefer Yi Yi over A Brighter Summer Day only because of my infatuation with colours.
The greatest achievement in film, still remains as The Dekalog (if you're into storytelling styles) or À Bout de Souffle (if you're into high-brow art).
Can you list your favourite movies?
@@Kieslowski1989 Okay. I don't necessarily disagree with the choices.
About Apichatpong, I think all his films function on the same level when it comes to quality, so I am not sure if one can really pin point the difference in quality, one from the other since the style and structure are cut out from the same piece of cloth, from Blissfully Yours to Memoria. Style and structure are the two most important aspects about his films. Of course there are differences, however they all belong to the same world.
Yes, I think Yi Yi are ABSD are both incredible.
Why do you think Lav Diaz's storytelling is weak?
For one, I think he strings a multitude of aspects to his stories(philosophical, political, emotional, societal, personal, aesthetics, location), and everything is more or less metaphorical, the way his characters are treated, their actions, physical portrayal, etc.
While watching Lav Diaz's finest works, I think they're very comprehensive and full, nothing jars the film experience, of course unless one can't get behind his way of portrayal of course. But apart from that, what he offers is a complete film experience.
Of course, I wouldn't argue if there is a single greatest film achievement, that would be quite arbitrary. The two I mentioned are something I personally kind of believe, however they're soft opinions.
Dekalog is wonderful, it is definitely one of the best achievements, I am personally not a big fan of Breathless but its influence is undeniable.
If I have to place filmmakers on an objective scale of how good they are.
These are the filmmakers I would put in the 1st tier in no particular order. The criteria does not include influence. The only criterion is how well have they explored the art form, I do feel that the criterion sounds vague and not very objective but that's what made most sense to me.
Yasujiro Ozu
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Michelangelo Antonioni
Bela Tarr
Lav Diaz
Tsai ming-liang
Robert Bresson
Chantal Akerman
Theo Angelopoulos
Abbas Kiarostami
Edward Yang
Robert Altman
Andrei Tarkovsky
Mani Kaul
Wang Bing
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Ingmar Bergman
Honorable mentions would included Franco Piavoli, Shuji Terayama, Pedro Costa, Joao Cesar Monteiro and Govindan Aravindan
Some of my favorite films would be News From Home, Yi Yi, Ashadh Ka Ek Din, Flowers From Shanghai, India Song, White Noise(2019), 'Til Madness Do Us Part, Satantango, practically every Tsai Ming-liang and Apichatpong film.
Tsai Ming-liang is probably my favorite filmmaker, maybe because I like all his films equally. I would say that Ozu and Apichatpong are probably two of the greatest filmmakers, but again it's not a very strong opinion. The others on the list are equally great.
What about you?
@@aravindnair6054 You're making a strong case for yourself.
If you consider Tsai Ming-Liang as your favourite with the anectode of liking all his movies, then I'd have to go with Andrei Tarkovsky. For me, all of his 7 were extremely likable.
My favourite filmmakers according to the percentage of movies that I liked-
Tarkovsky
Bresson
Godard
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Bergman
Wong Kar Wai (only watched his classic six)
Ozu
Abbas Kiarostami
Satyajit Ray
Martin Scorsese
Alain Resnais
Jacques Tati
Agnès Varda
Edward Yang
Asghar Farhadi
Akira Kurosawa
Koreeda Hirokazu
Federico Fellini
Kubrick
Sergei Eisenstein
Béla Tarr
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Hayao Miyazaki
Masaki Kobayashi
But if I name my top ten according to myself
1) Andrei Tarkovsky
2) Federico Fellini
3) Krzysztof Kieslowski
4) Yasuzirō Ozu
5) Martin Scorsese
6) Jean-Luc Godard
7) Rainer Werner Fassbinder
8) John Cassavetes
9) Robert Bresson
10) The Archers
Now for some of my favourite movies that I've watched recently (I watch 2 a day so it's difficult to keep track)
In the mood for Love, Portrait de la Jeune Fille en feu, Meshes of the Afternoon, The White Balloon, Ashes and Diamonds, Rosemary's Baby, The Cranes are Flying, Kwaidan, Naked, La Notte, Sunrise: A song of two Humans, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Bitter tears of Petra Von Kant, Ali: Fear eats the Soul, Das Leben der Anderen, Shoah, Baraka, Vagabond, Badlands, Days of Heaven.
Hope you have watched all of these...
Always and forever one of my favorite directors. I managed to catch Satantango on the big screen when the 4K restoration swung through New York. I had seen it before on DVD, but spending a whole day in a dark theater was an overwhelming experience. We think of Tarr's films as slow because we compare them to the rest of the media that flickers past our gaze. Satantango literally rewires your brain as you watch it. At some point, the rhythm starts seeming normal. It is the cinematic equivalent of reading Gravity's Rainbow IMO.
Béla Tarr is amazing, can't wait to dive in.
You really are a GIFT, man….. I’ve watched so much of your work and your Writing is spot-on….. Please keep up the great work! -- about time for me to hit up that patreon….!
Bela Tarr is one of cinema’s few true artists. He can’t be bought, refuses to compromise his vision for a single frame and he won’t put his work in a gallery - his work is cinematic in the purest sense of the word. It is a total commitment to cinema as it’s own set of aesthetics. Ergo, he is one of the most important filmmakers of all time.
What do you mean won't put his work in a gallery!? I would fact check that if I were you.
@@salvadorpalma8173 my mistake - I should have clarified that when I say he doesn’t “put his work in a gallery” he doesn’t hold it hostage to a gallery/elitist art world and make it inaccessible to the public - akin to someone like Matthew Barney. Should have specified.
Good ideas come from feedback. I think Tarr is someone who is blinded by his own ego as an artist.
I like his ideas, but I think he is usually his own worst enemy when it comes to his movies.
@@bloopboop9320 what do you mean, blinded by his ego?
@@Garbageman28 I'm a fan of the man, and his friend and I love him. But I wouldn't say his films are very accessible. I think Ken loach is accessible for example. But I get what you are saying in a sense. But I also think Bela's films are elitist in many ways.
Excellent video! I always enjoy your analysis and interpretations of these works. Thank you for putting this time and effort in!
I haven't actually seen any of Béla Tarr's films, but the sole work of his protégé, An Elephant Sitting Still, is one of my favorites. It's interesting to see how similar and yet how completely different they are. They're both extremely slow and apocalyptic yes, but while Tarr's shots are all deep focus and meticulously composed, the characters inseparable from their environment, in An Elephant Sitting Still you can see almost nothing except the person right in front of you, as if they stray too far they'll fall off the earth. And while Tarr's entire filmography ends with a light going out, I've always imagined the ending of An Elephant Sitting Still to be like someone lighting a single candle in the darkness. I'm definitely going to watch Tarr's work now, and rest in peace Hu Bo.
I really need to watch more of Tarr's work, I utterly adored The Turin Horse.
I've picked up several Hungarian films and still am yet to watch them.
thanks again for your work on this kind of videos
Thank you for this excellent video!
The three T's of artistically grand and awesome slow cinema.
Tarkovsky
Tarr
And Theo... Angelopolous.
Awesome channel and work!!
Thank you for this welcome break.
Excellent as always
Excellent video!
Great video on a magnificent author, thanks!
Went to see Satantango in cinema last month. Good day.
bela tarr has looked into the darkness, and has reflected that darkness
I love these videos
incredible video
Tarr is nothing without Krasznahorkai. Only after meeting Krasznahorkai his style changed.
Vig Mihaly also plays a massive role.
Unbeatable trio
@@DesertsofHibernia "Mere influence"
Absolutely no, not in the case of Tarr. The script writer of all his "good" films is Krasznahorkai. Tarr's breakthrough film was Damnation which was his first collab with Kras. Before Krasznahorkai Tarr films are medicore af.
Would love to see a video on Czech / different worldwide New Wave Cinema styles, or more on Cinema Vérité -esp Werner Herzog.
Orr a video contextualizing art in a discussion pertinent to Simulacra and Simulation by Beaudrillard.
At the end of Bertollucci's The Dreamers retro Paris 68 a police tear gas canister smashes through the window of The Dreamers attempting to commit suicide.
No one combines misery and art like Tarr
I always comment this but, best channel on UA-cam.
I like to call his cinema a True Lovecraftian one.
OOOOH Video time 😩🕺✨
Good vid. I'll check him out. Cheers.
Consciousness does not change history. History comes first for mass consciousness suddenly the unthinkable is real. Marx / Hitler.
Come on... Hungary is not the end of the world! Though living here certainly makes me think so too sometimes.
Could you share the reference about the Sudo (?) Manifesto?! Where to find it, etc, etc! Thanks :))
Sponsored by mubi. I Love hear it again.
An entire culture of film intellectuals celebrating, revering Satantango and its Director. You watched a cat be physically restrained, distressed, tied up in a bag, forced into a bowl, and knocked out. Yet critics, scholars, theorists, highly-regarded theatres and distribution companies, all share it and celebrate it. A film with such mastery and aesthetic merit, spoiled by an irredeemable act. Ontological, formal, and narratological debates should be off the table if you consider these things more important than the welfare of an animal that cannot consent to the actions forced on it.
nice!
Which movie is the owl scene from?
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Aye, have yourself a nice day 👍
A good movie to start on Béla Tarr?
Werckmeister Harmonies. His only good film. If you don't like don't eveN try his other films.
@@dimkilago2958 fucking abysmal take.
What do you mean at the end of the world? He is really famous in Europe, you just need an internet connection and you will stumble upon the Turin Horse. Check all Eastern Directors from Croatia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia and specially Romania. You will be blown away by the humanity that they display, it goes all against Hollywood cliches. One of my favourites is the greek Theodoros Angelopoulos, especially his movie Voyage to Cythera (1984), I hope you see this comment and keep up the good work :)
End of the world I assume means apocalyptic
did you really watch his earlier films in 240p
Do an analysis of "Sound of Metal"!! its a great movie YOU havent seen...
"this apocalyptic otherworldly realm" the typical hungarian village :D :D :D :D
I appreciate Tarr to a degree, and I think he has moments of genius, but I also think he needs an editor. Satantango's worst enemy is its runtime, but not its ideas, and I think Tarr never fully understood the power of taking a few seconds off of a scene here and there to increase the impact and suspense of a moment. I'm perfectly fine with slow movies, but I also think there needs to be intent and Tarr never comes across as someone who can narrow down his intent in a scene.
For example, there is a scene in the movie where we witness a girl in a home who has a mom that clearly doesn't care for her. The girl walks off, goes to her pet cat, and then starts insulting the cat and being rude to it. Anyone with a braincell understands the connection: This girl is quoting things to the cat that her mom called her... however, the scene goes on for something like 5-8 minutes and any level of clever subtlety becomes on the nose and embarrassingly obvious writing. The effect of the scene on the audience is completely lost because there is no longer any meaning for the scene to last so long and any intent of ideas is long lost.
There are many other scenes like this in the movie where there will be a moment of brilliance that is then completely lost because it goes on to a point where the effect is lost. It's not a matter of runtime, perse, it is a matter of knowing what is relevant to create the desired effect.
Another example of this would be Werkmeister Harmonies, where there is a crowd shot of an angry mob going to attack a care center for the mentally ill. This scene could work, but for some reason there is a crane shot looking at the faces of the people marching for at least 2 minutes. This doesn't work because no new information is provided to the audience nor is there new content to make the audience think. Sometimes, when filmmaking, it isn't necessarily just about telling the audience what to think but giving them content to make their own conclusions and ideas. However, this scene doesn't work because there isn't new content to think about. If the scene were to be 45 seconds long I would say it would have been quite effective. However, when it is 2 minutes long, it loses the effect.
I want to like him as a director, but every movie of his that I have scene feels like a rough cut of a movie and not a final version. If Satantango's run time were even 10 minutes shorter (out of a nearly 8 hour long movie) I think it would be a far superior movie.
Movies don't need to give us new information or "content" to be interesting.
They are photographs playing out in time.
Films have too long relied on literature, and people should start appreciating the art of the visual language for what it is and how it can transcend other art forms
❤
I'm 2 hours in to Satantango and it's easily the most painfully bleak film I've ever seen.
I'm considering giving this film maker a try. Which Bela Tarr film would you recommend I watch first?
Werckmeister Harmonies I would say. It's not as profoundly slow as his other films, but it contains just as much misery.
Movies like Damnation, The Turin Horse and Satantango are almost punishing in how slow they move - so it's best to be prepared.
@@THICCTHICCTHICC Many thanks! I'll give Werckmeister Harmonies a whirl. No worries, I'm always prepared. I love slow cinema : )
Can you please talk about Satyajit Ray
Cinema pretty much died around 2010. You can quibble about the date per individual. Tarr is a good example of it's death. The Damned was sumptuous unforgettable wonderfull nostalgia for 2000s. But it's gone. The problem is we are actually damned in real life. The candles on the altar splutter out. But one slums it in the early days of WW3.
Well some like realism they can't "escape" in fantasy films anyway think those concepts for the immature and delusional.
top
At the end of the film after the film the world just rots 😄🤮 A true epitaph except its not in Black and White.
No thanks I’ll watch a romcom like Mystic Pizza
I'm just starting to read The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and if this doesn't have anything to do with the restaurant I'm going to be disappointed 🍿🍩🍸
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