Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52800 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Black & White, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: Hungarian, Slovak
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 265 minutes

Special Features

• Bela Tarr interview
  
• Filmography

DVD Technical Information:

• Language: Hungarian
  
• Subtitles: English
  
• Black & White
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  
• Region Code: 2
  
• Running time:
  Disc 1 (Werckmeister Harmonies): 145 minutes
  Disc 2 (Damnation): 120 minutes

Synopsis
A 2-DVD set containing Hungarian director Bela Tarr's tour de force WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES alongside 2000's DAMNATION. In a nameless, frozen, Eastern European village cloaked in fog, Janos (Lars Rudolph) choreographs three grizzly drunks in a pantomime of the earth circling the sun and the moon circling the earth. He freezes his actors and describes a total eclipse of the sun; the world grinds to a halt in momentary fear until the warmth of the sun again blankets the earth. On his errands in the wintry wee hours, he hears his neighbours worry about the severe coal shortage, the disappearance of entire families, and the impending riot. He watches as a truck lumbers into town, pulling an enormous corrugated shed behind it. Inside is a stuffed whale. The most gigantic ever seen. A sign says that a Prince accompanies the whale. Janos goes to visit Uncle Gyorgy (Peter Fitz), a musicologist determined to prove that the order imposed on sound by the Werckmeister Harmonies is false and only sonic chaos and disorder is truth. Weary and hungry, Janos finally makes it home when Aunt Tunde (Hanna Schygulla) arrives, threatening to move back in with Gyorgy if Janos does not convince him to use his influence to help her start her "clean town movement." It's simply exquisite.DAMNATION tells the story of Karrer, a virtual hermit who has no human contact save an obsession with a singer in his local bar.

From the Back Cover
Werckmeister Harmonies
The extraordinary Hungarian director Bela Tarr is one of the world’s most original and acclaimed contemporary filmmakers. In a body of work concerned with metaphysical explorations of the human condition, he has created an uncompromising, innovative and utterly engrossing cinematic world.

The population of a provincial town on the Hungarian plains await the arrival of a circus that features the stuffed carcass of a whale and a mysterious Prince. Its appearance disturbs the order of the small town, unleashing a torrent of violence and beauty.

Damnation
In a small Hungarian town lives Karrer, a listless and brooding man who has almost completely withdrawn from the world, but for an obsession with a singer in the bar he frequents. Tarr’s immaculately photographed and composed film is about eternal conflict: the centuries old struggle between barbarism and civilization.

Customer Reviews

The Melancholy of film making.
Bela Tarr is a visionary film maker. I can think on no other who is as unafraid of his audience or material: he has no fear of challenging the viewer and as a result, his films have an unhurried rhythm that allows the audience to absorb atmosphere, often to claustrophobic effect.

Werkmeister Harmonies is based on the central section of László Krasznahorkai's novel "The Melancholy Of Resistance". It takes place in a small Magyar town that is visited in the night by a mysterious "Prince" and his travelling pantechnicon which contains a huge stuffed whale. Mysterious strangers arrive and the atmosphere turns violent...

Tarr immerses the viewer in his unique vision. The succession of daringly long takes brings the audience closer to the people and place: a four minute shot of people walking in silence becomes unbearably tense; a two minute shot of a man running along a railway track brings desperation.

This disc comes with the bonus of Tarr's earlier "Damnation" on a separate disc.

Two Bela Tarr Classics
Damnation (1987): stricken by hopelessness a man seeks salvation in his desire for a woman, who he then betrays to the authorities, betraying his own humanity in the process.
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000): a strange carnival comes to town during a corrupt election which erupts into mob violence.

Arty black & white; very long takes; very slow pans & zooms; characters muttering profound aphorisms; a general mood of existentialist angst. At first Bela Tarr seems like a throwback to the days of Antonioni, Bergman & Tarkovsky. Surely you can't make movies like that now, in this ironic post-modern post-Tarantino world? After awhile, however, you realise Tarr's precursors are more likely to be Fassbinder & (early) Kieslowski and what might seem pretentious & old fashioned is actually as hard as nails & utterly contemporary. Which is why Tarr is having such an influence on younger American "indie" directors like Gus Van Zant. If you want to present the confused horror of the modern world without resorting to cartoon violence then Tarr's aesthetic is as good as any right now.

Damnation gets better with each viewing. It is a remarkable film & what seems initially like heavy-handed plot, characterisation & dialogue turns out to be very clever, complex & twisted. The movie would be worth watching just for the elaborate set piece dolly shots - really! Werckmeister Harmonies throws in another old-fashioned element: allegory & symbolism (& of course these films could be seen as a comment on the degeneration of the old Eastern Block), but again there are some remarkable scenes (such as the horrific mob attack on a hospital) which continue to haunt long after viewing. If you like classic European art house movies then you should certainly investigate Bela Tarr. This Artificial Eye edition is basic but it's great to get the two movies in one package.

Beauty is to see without thought
That Werkmeister Harmonies is a genuine 21st century classic is not in dispute, an open mind and appreciation of meaningful cinema will ensure that you find value in it. The real surprise here is Tarr's 1989 film Damnation. It could nominally be categorised a a sort of film noir but is adverse to any easy categorisation. Borrowing the style of Tarkovsky's Stalker the camera spends most of its time rolling at glacial speeds along dolly tracks that illuminate tableus of desparation and ironically fatalistic scenes. The effect not only drags you into the decaying world of a late eighties Eastern bloc city, but via its stillness and the exploration of the stillness you develop an ontological relationship with the images and the real world that surrounds it. To put it in a less philisophical way, Tarr's film through its slowness, non commital dialogue, and cypher characters creates an enormous space in order for you to insert yourself within the situation. The effect you cannot describe as enjoyable, only essential. Rumour has it that Tarr's 7 hour opus SatanTango is on the release horizon for DVD now, what better way to prepare than to ease yourself into his earlier, and later, dark worlds.