Werckmeister Harmoniak poster & wallpaper

Djoko Rosic, Hanna Schygulla, J?nos Derzsi

In a small Hungarian village, during a freezing winter, a small circus comes to town, promising an appearance by The Prince. A large crowd braves the cold and pays to see the show. But when the manage...( read more  read more... )r announces The Prince will not appear, the crowd revolts, marches on the local hospital and begins trashing the place. Soon after an unexpected sight causes the crowd to disperse just before the military arrives to crush the revolt.

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3,302 ratings

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27 critics

Unrated, 2 hrs. 25 min.

Directed by: B?la Tarr, Bela Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky

Release Date: January 1, 2001

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DVD Release Date: February 28, 2006

Stats: 221 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (221)

  • doboy1
    December 24, 2008
    doboy1
    More psycho-babble from the east block. Lots of deep conversation, and in the end you need to piece things together yerself. Why ask why? Beautiful to watch and listen to if you have 2 1/2 hours to spare.
    I was happy to.
  • ceWEBrity
    November 17, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    You Europeans can pretend to like this shit all you want but you are not fooling me, no sir.
  • bort16
    January 15, 2008
    bort16
    The film opens as the local pub is closing up. The barkeep orders the drunken townsfolk to leave, but they inform him that they must was for Janos to arrive so that he can explain the forthcoming eclipse. He arrives, and uses the drunks as his models for the planets and stars. ...( read more)He describes the eclipse in a vibrant story telling style ? ?will the hills march off?? The barkeeper has enough and orders them to leave before the end. Janos walks off the camera in front of him backing away. He is immersed in light surrounded by darkness as he makes his way down the street to Mihaly Vig?s mesmerizing score. This is all done in two shots, lasting around 11 minutes. As typical in a Tarr film, many if not most shots will last near ten minutes.
    The director, Bela Tarr is widely regarded as one of the greatest modern filmmakers, though (as noted by Roger Ebert) is more talked about than seen. This was the first film of Tarr?s that I saw, and it caught me hook, line, and sinker. The beautiful black and white cinematography, incredibly long takes, and hauntingly sparse soundtrack creates a masterful atmosphere. The film revolves around Janos, who is well liked in his small village. He goes to great lengths to care for his ailing uncle, a music scholar, who spends all his time trying to readjust the mistakes of Andreas Werckmeister. A carnival comes to town under the cover of night, with the giant carcass of a whale, and a mysterious character called the Prince, who rumor has it has a devoted following of worshippers who follow his every word as he incites riots and stirs up violent sentiment. We overhear a conversation that describes how whole families are disappearing, and that good honest people are fearful to leave their houses. Janos becomes mystified by the whale and the humor of the lord for creating such a bizarre and huge creature after seeing it for himself.
    He is visited by his Auntie Tunde, the ex-wife of his uncle. She demands that he must get his uncle to persuade the town?s citizens to sign up and donate to a fund so that she and the police chief may organize a group to restore order in the town. If his uncle fails to do so by 4pm that day, she will move back in. They follow her orders as the camera follows them around town. Tarr thinks nothing of simply watching someone walk for minutes at a time. Later that night, Janos will be asked to go down to the town square and see who was talking to whom and what is going on. He goes and finds that fires have been lit. He sneaks into the truck to see the whale again, and overhears the circus manager arguing with the Prince and his translator. He demands that the Prince must not be allowed out to destroy another town but he is powerless to stop him. He tells them that they are free from his services and he will not take responsibility anymore. Janos runs off as the camera paces in front of him, close up on his face, as we still hear the voice of the Prince. We hear riots break out behind him. He stops running and heads back.
    Much has been made to attempt to place symbolism on the film. Tarr has claimed however that his films contain none. Nevertheless, the film is filled with such metaphysical overtones and undertones that you don?t have to look hard to suggest symbolism. The incredible, balletic organization of the shots works to create a dense and atmospheric mood. In all of Tarr?s films there are extended shots of people doing mundane things. The task of eating is particularly present in his films, and long shots of people walking. There are many of these moments in Werckmeister Harmonies, one of which does come across as slightly trying and overreaching. Most however are incredibly hypnotic. Take for example a shot of the mob as they make their way to a hospital through the streets. The camera hovers above them, moving backwards for minutes, no dialog or music, just the sounds of footsteps in unison. The most complex shot of film comes as the mob ransacks the hospital beating patients. They come across a naked old man, standing, waiting to be attacked. The mob stops, as Vig?s score sad score kicks in, and are brought back to reality as they leave in unison again, this time somberly. We discover that Janos has been watching them, or perhaps participating.
    Werckmeister Harmonies? beautiful compositions, deliberate lack of story telling and existential themes blend to create a film that is outside of time. All of Tarr?s films create a specific and empty sense of atmosphere. He looks to plunge us into the world of his characters. The final shot of the film lands us back in the town square as Janos?s uncle finally goes to see the whale his nephew has been begging him to see, the whale which lead to Janos?s intrigue, what got him caught up in the events of spawned by the Prince. The truck it was in has been turned to rubble, the whale lies on the ground. He looks it in the eye, and walks off in sadness rather than fascination.
  • drago25
    March 9, 2007
    drago25
    I am in total awe with this movie. Total awe. A decadent, surreal, introspective masterpiece. Words can not even begin to describe how fully affected I was by this movie. The directing was fucking incredible - every single second of every single frame was filled with purpose, th...( read more)e director had a tendency of staying with a scene for minutes, even, after a main character leaves the frame, no matter how minimal the action, that I found ingenious. The director was not afraid to get as close as possible to show the beauty in every human face, no matter how imperfect, and to stay with his characters' movement. No matter how repetitive, these shots always worked, especially when the actors filled the pregnant silence with their expressions or just mere presence. There were so many incredible shots, all of them more than notable. I also loved how the camera was almost constantly in movement, there were few completely still shots. The actors were brilliant, especially the lead - he had a quiet, intense dignity reminiscent of someone like Klaus Kinski that fascinated me. The story was surreal and so bloody potent, the final shot had me in tears not from any particular emotional drag but from the mere beauty of it and the power of what I had just witnessed. By all means, this is not for everyone, it requires a lot of patience. This is not just entertainment, this is a film that absolutely requires you to think about what you are viewing and ask questions, even if they aren't answered right away. But it is the most amazing film I have seen in quite some time, and has instantly become a favourite.
  • ElCochran90
    October 16, 2009
    ElCochran90
    - You are the sun. The sun doesn't move, this is what it does. You are the Earth. The Earth is here for a start, and then the Earth moves around the sun. And now, we'll have an explanation that simple folks like us can also understand, about immortality. All I ask is th...( read more)at you step with me into the boundlessness, where constancy, quietude and peace, infinite emptiness reign. And just imagine, in this infinite sonorous silence, everywhere is an impenetrable darkness. Here, we only experience general motion, and at first, we don't notice the events that we are witnessing. The brilliant light of the sun always sheds its heat and light on that side of the Earth which is just then turned towards it. And we stand here in it's brilliance. This is the moon. The moon revolves around the Earth. What is happening? We suddenly see that the disc of the moon, the disc of the moon, on the Sun's flaming sphere, makes an indentation, and this indentation, the dark shadow, grows bigger... and bigger. And as it covers more and more, slowly only a narrow crescent of the sun remains, a dazzling crescent. And at the next moment, the next moment - say that it's around one in the afternoon - a most dramatic turn of event occurs. At that moment the air suddenly turns cold. Can you feel it? The sky darkens, then goes all dark. The dogs howl, rabbits hunch down, the deer run in panic, run, stampede in fright. And in this awful, incomprehensible dusk, even the birds... the birds too are confused and go to roost. And then... Complete Silence. Everything that lives is still. Are the hills going to march off? Will heaven fall upon us? Will the Earth open under us? We don't know. We don't know, for a total eclipse has come upon us... But... but no need to fear. It's not over. For across the sun's glowing sphere, slowly, the Moon swims away. And the sun once again bursts forth, and to the Earth slowly there comes again light, and warmth again floods the Earth. Deep emotion pierces everyone. They have escaped the weight of darkness
    - That's enough! Out of here, you tubs of beer!
    - But Mr. Hagelmayer. It's still not over.

    WERCKMEISTER HARMÓNIÁK (2000)


    Director: Béla Tarr
    Country: Hungary
    Genre: Drama
    Length: 145 minutes

    Bela Tarr,Hungary,Werckmeister Harm


    Béla Tarr, on the way of becoming an absolute giant of cinema, on the way of portraying a strikingly gorgeous poetry, on his way of transforming real life into cinema, is back with the best film of the year: Werckmeister Harmóniák. This film is still questioning the utter meaning of existence, the outside factors that affect the stubbornness and the weakness of the human condition, and the complexity of life itself. It still possesses questions about the undeniable present reality and it still provides a wonderfully strong and cathartic feeling, not only towards an individual viewer, but towards a society? towards a mass as a whole. The harmonies still belong to the category of "the most beautiful pieces of cinema ever committed to celluloid". God is still an implicit character, perhaps the one that provides his best omnipresent performance. Reviews still do not do any deserved justice to the film. Words still cannot suffice. However, it is an undeniable fact that it is one of the best (modern) films ever made. The film references itself and references past projects of Béla Tarr, but that does not deviate the film from its purity state and from its wonderful dose of reflection.

    In a small Hungarian town completely surrounded by frost and with a temperature of nearly 20 degrees below zero, several people congregate around the circus tent after a very peculiar arrival: "The World's Largest Giant Whale and Other Wonders of Nature!" with a man named The Prince as its guest star. The arrival of foreigners starts to disturb the tranquility and peacefulness of the town while everybody follows the new circus sensation like mindless beings, a state of affairs that ends up in tragedy. Béla Tarr won the "Reader Jury of the "Berliner Zeitung"" award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001. It was also greatly received by Hungarian Film festivals, including the Hungarian Film Critics Awards.

    The magic of the director's filmmaking style can be found in the fact that he may do the exact same film several times and still cause the gigantic breathtaking effect on cinema. The only aspects that really change are the plot, the characters and the length, especially since he first found his cinematographic perspective with his film Kárhozat (1987). Werckmeister Harmóniák has the peculiarity of utilizing a gigantic symbol for representing the evilness and intrinsic inner destruction of the human being: the world's largest giant whale. The similar idea is shared in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): despite our physical evolution, our primitive instincts have remained intact. Our body has acquired the anthropomorphous shape we know today, language has been created for serving our purposes, but we are still an animal race. God planned since the beginning to create us as apes. He did not give us the humanly physical and psychological characteristics we possess today. We did not choose to evolve; the nature played its role. Some other questionings arise from the aforementioned statements: how different are we now since then? Since nature plays its role however it wants it to play, is Mother Nature a positive aspect considering the evolution of the worldwide species? Did God transformed nature into a puppet so this giant whale, a being that has been submitted to an eternal suffering outside its oceanic environment, could arrive to this Hungarian town and cause such turmoil without even blinking? We can see it in The Holy Bible, we can prove it through a deep study and analysis of worldwide history: the corruptibleness of man, a feature that is instantly originated from free will, has led the human race to create an extraordinary sense of ego, overpowerment and resulting wars. Catastrophe and tragedy ensue from this whale, the mystery of a personality that calls himself "The Prince" and a sensation that has the cost of 100 forints.

    Unlike Sátántangó (1994), the screenplay of this film required much more underlying layers of challenging complexity. The title of the film comes from the German musician Andreas Werckmeister (1645 - 1706), a music master who is offered a tribute consisting in a long explanation and analysis of his lyrics and their possible meanings. Valuska is a humanist. He is the typical well-intentioned man who wants the best for the people around him without receiving anything in return. His idiosyncratic portrayal and his extreme saintliness, a saintliness based on his Catholicism, contrast the size of a man with the influence that the Universe executes on us, although not in a direct form. The epilogue of the film opens with a 10-minute shot of Valuska in a bar surrounded by drunk, agnostic drunk men who do not understand the current functioning of the Solar System. Naturally, Valuska uses words of wisdom and tear-inducing poetry to explain how the Moon spins around the Earth and how the Earth and the planets spin around the Sun. Intentionally or not, they are aware of their utter "insignificant significance" in this human and earthly existence, until an outside factor arrives to town. After all, how can this ambitious idea could work without portraying life as it really is? We accompany Valuska and the characters that surround him in their prolonged walks. We live with them inside their respective houses and we have supper with them. We talk with them; we are allowed to imaginarily state our personal opinions about a particular discussion they are currently having. Cinematography is still reaching an indescribable level of visual perfection and realistic amazement. The performances have an ultra-talented neorealist experience and the musical score is one of the most extraordinarily moving, beautiful, quiet, haunting, heartbreaking, inspirational, reflexive and melodramatically moving despite its constant repetitiveness.

    Werckmeister Harmóniák has a more reasonable length and, consequently, a more appealing narrative structure. It does not make the backgrounds of the characters to intentionally intertwine. It has one main character. It has a single story, rather than several put into one single movie. We are offered a third-person perspective. We witness the inevitable atrocities that were meant to happen without any chance of preventing it. Man is a tool for his own destruction. The women are the promoters of such perilous outcome. God is merciful, but we won't allow it. Shocking epiphanies are born throughout the film's length, and it is up to us to accept them and literally digest them. Why so much hatred, why so much pain? Violence is not the perfect measure to measure, after all. This film has achieved an almost unreachable status. Béla Tarr has established vision towards the world as a moving image, as a living painting, as colored literature, as moving sculptures. It is perfection at one of its finest forms, and it is easily one of the most patiently ambitious films ever made. Béla Tarr has restored the true meaning of cinema. Unfortunately, after he is gone, he will be finally recognized. This film lets you live without breathing, providing you with a restored heart that had been previously destroyed by an unsuccessful relationship or by the unexpected, complicated death of a rather close relative. It may save lives...

    100/100
  • Phonex
    October 12, 2009
    Phonex
    2000

    Adapted from the novel The Melancholy of Resistance by author László Krashnahorkai in collaboration with Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky, Werckmeister Harmonies is an elegantly composed, seductively lugubrious, and haunting cautionary tale of moral ambiguity, lawlessness, p...( read more)etty self-interest, and inertia. From the long take opening sequence depicting the orbital singularity of a hypothetical eclipse, Tarr establishes the parallel for the townspeople as self-contained microcosms behaving according to inherent, pre-programmed natures that, when particularly aligned according to a prescribed set of circumstances, will collectively result in chaos and uncertainty.
  • arashxak
    March 4, 2009
    arashxak
    Fantastic begining, great ending & interesting thought-provoking concept, but overlong movie with overlong sequences
  • bbliumis
    January 27, 2009
    bbliumis
    a very weird but nice film.

    AMAZING LONG TAKES.
    Maybe a bit boring but still a Film School material.
  • heavyd2000
    November 7, 2008
    heavyd2000
    this sounds verry verry cool.
  • Epicouros
    January 27, 2008
    Epicouros
    an amazing film. in the page of film there is a very good analysis by the" bort16 " a member here .

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Critic Reviews

September 14, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Bela Tarr's style seems to be an attempt to regard his characters with great intensity and respect, to observe them without jostling them, to follow unobtrusively as they move through their worlds, wh... full review

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