#466 - Béla Tarr on Werckmeister Harmonies

This week we’re excited to present a conversation with the great Hungarian filmmaker, Béla Tarr, who recently joined us for screenings of four films from his acclaimed filmography, three of which were new restorations, courtesy of Janus Films. Three years in the making, Werckmeister Harmonies is a sustained, real-time immersion in the universe of weatherbeaten villages and full-contact metaphysics in which co-directors Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, and writer László Krasznahorkai specialize. A curiously smart paper carrier named János (Lars Rudolph, in an astonishingly complex performance) observes a mysterious traveling circus—complete with a stuffed whale—that comes to town, and marks a sea change in relationships of all kinds—between families, lovers, peasants and royals. In this movie, voted as one of the best of its decade by Film Comment, each action, however small, carries the weight of revolution. With Fassbinder icon Hanna Schygulla.