Werckmeister Harmonies

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title: Werckmeister harmóniák
Date: January 01, 2000 to December 31, 2000
Dates Note: 2000
Country of Origin: France , Germany , Hungary , Italy , Switzerland
Place of Origin: Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland
Languages: Hungarian , German
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On: the novel The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
Additional Info:


Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
Special Screenings
Description: 

In a remote Hungarian town, all order, meaning, and reason are about to break down; for reasons left unexplained, people no longer ask why, or where, but merely wonder when. At the village center, a mob has gathered, awaiting the appearance of a rabble-rouser called “the Prince” and, of all things, a stuffed whale, a sight so unimaginable in a landlocked nation as to guarantee civilization’s total meltdown, when “the furious hordes of the anarchic unshaven would instinctively assume command.” Prowling along tavern floors and sidewalks, alleyways and hospital corridors, Béla Tarr’s camera tracks with minutely observed detail the fury that lurks beneath the air, tracing a society poised between civility and barbarism, only steps away from either inertia or apocalypse. German New Wave icon Hanna Schygulla appears in a welcome cinematic comeback, while Lars Rudolf, as the town’s wide-eyed holy fool, contributes a fevered performance of Klaus Kinski–like proportions.

Authors/Roles: 
Jason Sanders


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