Country
Hungary
Year
1988
Language
Hungarian spoken, Dutch subtitles
Actors
Miklós Székely B., Gyula Pauer, Vali Kerekes
Director
Béla Tarr
Duration
116 min
Grays and shadows lend this existential film noir parable of despair an almost abstract beauty amidst rain, mud, and howling dogs.
Bela Tarr has made an elusive, melancholic film about the approaching end of communism. Grays and shadows lend this existential film noir parable about despair an almost abstract beauty amidst rain, mud, and howling dogs. Since his dismissal, Karrer has lived a secluded life in a drab industrial town in the Hungarian countryside; he spends his evenings at the Titanic Bar, staring amorously at the singer, to no avail.
The woman is already married. This could be the logline or payoff for Béla Tarr's portrait of a destitute man in dire circumstances on the eve of the fall of communism. It would—for Tarr is not a director who likes to condense his work into simple one-liners. Story plays a secondary role in his films; the images—in black and white—do the work, while the soundtrack and music carry his parables about humanity like a bundle of existential despair. 4K digital restoration.
Béla Tarr was the master of the enchanting long shot, the master of beautifully shot, melancholic films about the human condition. He is widely regarded as the most influential film auteur of the past thirty years. Tarr (Pécs, Hungary, 1955) achieved international fame with Damnation (1988) and expanded his fame and prestige with his seven-hour-plus magnum opus Sátántangó (1994). His films can be understood as commentary on the fragility of human civilization. His grand, earthy films depict humanity in the hopelessness of its existence. Yet, there is sometimes a glimpse of redemption, as the drinks flow, an orchestra plays, and the bar patrons lose themselves in a drunken dance.
There are no new dates planned (yet) for Classics: Damnation.
