The Werckmeister harmonies
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Werckmeister harmonies |
| Original title | Werckmeister harmóniák |
| Country of production | Hungary , Germany , France , Italy |
| original language | Hungarian , Slovak |
| Publishing year | 2000 |
| length | 145 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Béla Tarr |
| script |
László Krasznahorkai Béla Tarr |
| production |
Franz Goëss Miklós Szita Paul Saadoun Joachim von Vietinghoff |
| music | Mihály Víg |
| camera |
Gábor Medvigy Jörg Widmer Patrick de Ranter Rob Tregenza Emil Novák Erwin Lanzensberger Miklós Gurban |
| cut | Ágnes Hranitzky |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Werckmeisterchen Harmonie (original title: Werckmeister harmóniák ) is an international co-produced film by the Hungarian director Béla Tarr from the year 2000. The literary model was the novel Melancholy des Resistance by the author László Krasznahorkai . The film shows what is going on in a remote Hungarian village where ominous events take place.
action
The main character is the naive-looking János Valuska, who delivers newspapers and wanders around in the unnamed village, where it is extremely cold. In the first scene he has visitors to the village pub re-enact the movements in the solar system to explain an approaching solar eclipse with the movements of the heavenly bodies.
A "circus" arrives in the village, which advertises with the attraction of a huge whale carcass and the "duke". Even before they even arrive, there are rumors that the circus will bring mischief. János, fascinated, visits the carcass, which is in a trailer in the market square, where a crowd gathers.
The reclusive music theorist György Eszter, whom János helps with the household, is blackmailed by his wife Tünde. Together with the local police chief, she wants to found an organization to "clean" the village and maintain order. György is supposed to take care of the organization and take the chair because of his respected name, which he does reluctantly.
Tünde orders János to watch exactly what is happening in the marketplace. The crowd there has now lit fire. János wants to see the whale again and sneaks into the trailer. There he listens to a dispute between the ringmaster and the "Duke" 's interpreter and himself; all that can be seen of the duke is his shadow on the wall. The director has had enough of the duke inciting people into unrest with his seditious speeches. The Duke then begins precisely such a speech. János flees while a mob appears to have started crime. A crowd breaks into a hospital and abuses the patients, but finally stops at the sight of a naked old man and turns around.
János finds the body of a shoemaker friend and is informed by his wife that he is wanted by the authorities. He is captured on the run. Eszter visits him and reports that the police chief and Tünde have quartered in his house while he was given a small adjoining room to live in. He promises János that János will also be able to stay there if he comes out again.
In the last shot, Eszter walks across the deserted village square, where the whale carcass is still lying between the remains of the unrest. He looks at it for the first time and then moves on.
background
Typical of Tarr's style, the film was shot completely in black and white and consists of only 39 takes with a total length of 145 minutes.
As in numerous other projects, Tarr's wife Ágnes Hranitzky took over the editing and parts of the direction .
The main roles were cast with German actors who were dubbed in Hungarian . Valuska will be spoken by Tamás Bolba , Mr. Eszter by Péter Haumann and Ms. Eszter by Marianna Moór . The voice of the "Duke" who speaks Slovak is that of Attila Kaszás .
A total of six cameramen were involved in the making of the film, including one American, two Hungarians, two German and one French.
The title alludes to the Werckmeister tuning system (based on the baroque musician Andreas Werckmeister ). The character Eszter holds a monologue in the film about the fact that all of Western music has gotten on the wrong track with Werckmeister's ideas and that one should rather return to the Pythagorean mood .
reception
The Werckmeister harmonies received almost exclusively positive reviews. The film achieved an average rating of 92 out of 100 possible points (based on 8 reviews) on Metacritic, among others , and Rotten Tomatoes received 97% appreciative feedback from a total of 38 reviews.
The film critic Roger Ebert gave the film the maximum rating of 4 out of 4 stars and described it as "unique and original", and also wrote that it was as similar to the Cinéma vérité as the works of Frederick Wiseman . In 2007 he added the film to his list of "Great Films".
In 2016, Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien took 56th place in a BBC survey of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .
Web links
- Werckmeister Harmonies in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Werckmeister's harmonies in the online film database
- Werckmeister's harmonies in the lexicon of international film