Sátántangó (1994)
(Satan's Tango)
Country: HUN/GER/SW
Technical: bw/1.66:1 450m
Director: Béla Tarr
Cast: Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, László feLugossy
Synopsis:
Lost in a featureless landscape and lashed by rains, a modest hamlet of farm buildings and community housing lies hunched and waiting. The inhabitants, who drink, scheme and spy on each other, are agog at the news that a charismatic ex-con is on his way to see them.
Review:
This notorious test of viewer stamina, based on a novel, is a bitterly ironic take on the failure of the communist centralised economy, with its delapidated agricultural collective and petty-minded characters. It resolves itself into a series of inordinately long takes, often constructed around inexorably slow tracks and pans, or in dialogue using fixed shots in preference to shot-reverse shot. There is sparing use of non-diegetic sound, essentially a repeated melancholy accordion theme, itself transformed into a demonic dance without end in the night scene at the pub, and some mysterious bells tolling at the end. The slowness is so disorienting that unless one views the film in closely grouped sittings one is in danger of missing the fact that a number of events are restaged from different perspectives in a sort of 'two steps forward, one step back' chronology. What some of the events depicted actually portend, and what the motivation of the characers of Irimiás and Petrina is, remain mysteries to the end, but the film leaves an indelible mark nonetheless.
(Satan's Tango)
Country: HUN/GER/SW
Technical: bw/1.66:1 450m
Director: Béla Tarr
Cast: Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, László feLugossy
Synopsis:
Lost in a featureless landscape and lashed by rains, a modest hamlet of farm buildings and community housing lies hunched and waiting. The inhabitants, who drink, scheme and spy on each other, are agog at the news that a charismatic ex-con is on his way to see them.
Review:
This notorious test of viewer stamina, based on a novel, is a bitterly ironic take on the failure of the communist centralised economy, with its delapidated agricultural collective and petty-minded characters. It resolves itself into a series of inordinately long takes, often constructed around inexorably slow tracks and pans, or in dialogue using fixed shots in preference to shot-reverse shot. There is sparing use of non-diegetic sound, essentially a repeated melancholy accordion theme, itself transformed into a demonic dance without end in the night scene at the pub, and some mysterious bells tolling at the end. The slowness is so disorienting that unless one views the film in closely grouped sittings one is in danger of missing the fact that a number of events are restaged from different perspectives in a sort of 'two steps forward, one step back' chronology. What some of the events depicted actually portend, and what the motivation of the characers of Irimiás and Petrina is, remain mysteries to the end, but the film leaves an indelible mark nonetheless.
(Satan's Tango)
Country: HUN/GER/SW
Technical: bw/1.66:1 450m
Director: Béla Tarr
Cast: Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, László feLugossy
Synopsis:
Lost in a featureless landscape and lashed by rains, a modest hamlet of farm buildings and community housing lies hunched and waiting. The inhabitants, who drink, scheme and spy on each other, are agog at the news that a charismatic ex-con is on his way to see them.
Review:
This notorious test of viewer stamina, based on a novel, is a bitterly ironic take on the failure of the communist centralised economy, with its delapidated agricultural collective and petty-minded characters. It resolves itself into a series of inordinately long takes, often constructed around inexorably slow tracks and pans, or in dialogue using fixed shots in preference to shot-reverse shot. There is sparing use of non-diegetic sound, essentially a repeated melancholy accordion theme, itself transformed into a demonic dance without end in the night scene at the pub, and some mysterious bells tolling at the end. The slowness is so disorienting that unless one views the film in closely grouped sittings one is in danger of missing the fact that a number of events are restaged from different perspectives in a sort of 'two steps forward, one step back' chronology. What some of the events depicted actually portend, and what the motivation of the characers of Irimiás and Petrina is, remain mysteries to the end, but the film leaves an indelible mark nonetheless.