"in Just- / spring / when the world is mud- / luscious the little / lame balloonman / whistles far and wee" - e.e. cummings
04.2024
1 from Criterion
Werckmeister Harmonies (Hungary/Germany, 2000)
In 39 long takes, Hungarian director Béla Tarr (Sátántangó, The Turin Horse) and his co-director and editor Ágnes Hranitzky adapt a 1989 novel by László Krasznahorkai about a village that's turned upside down one winter by the visit of a traveling showman, whose circus act features a rotting stuffed whale and a sinister off-screen personage called the Prince. A local cobbler named Lajos (played by German actor Lars Rudolph), is enchanted by the whale, seeing the beast as proof the cosmos is glorious by design, but the rest of the assembled folk aren't so sure, and soon a mob gathers and things turn to violence. The black-and-white cinematography looks dazzling in the 4K restoration supervised by Tarr that U.S. distributor Criterion now brings to region-free Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Extras on the discs include Tarr's first feature film, the kitchen-sink drama Family Nest (1979, 106 minutes), an interview with the director by film critic Scott Foundas (21 mins.), and a trailer. The booklet has an essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim.