Saturday, November 21, 2020

100 Words on Béla Tarr's Sátántangó (1994)


By Thomas Puhr

Despite its formidable runtime, Sátántangó (1994) is the antithesis of an epic. Tarr's patient, precise camera circles - like the spider web to which the narrator often refers - around the same handful of characters and events, revealing the complex network of perspectives behind even the simplest of moments. 

The villagers’ stories are reduced to a few pages, crammed in a locked bureau among countless forgotten records. The government workers file their report. The drunken doctor boards up his rainswept windows. 

Do the bells ring again or for the first time? What did Irimiás (Mihály Vig) see in that fog?

No comments:

Post a Comment