The Turin Horse
Directed By: Béla Tarr (co-directed by
Agnes Hranitzky)
Written By: László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr
Starring: János Derzsi and Erika Bók
Director of
Photography: Fred Kelemen, Editor: Agnes Hranitzky, Original Music: Mihaly Vig
Rated: Fun for the whole family!
Last week, I had the pleasure to
attend a number of the films by the Hungarian master Béla Tarr, including his
450 minute epic Sátántangó.
When friends asked me what I’d be doing that day, I explained to them I’d be at
a seven and a half hour film. When that shot their ears up in horror, I went
on: It’s all in Hungarian, and it’s in black and white, also not much happens
in terms of plot, and it’s most likely about people suffering. When I told my
friends after seeing it that I was truly inspired by the film, including the opening
shot of cows wandering through an empty village, they questioned my
authenticity.
And certainly they are right to—who would sit through the work of Tarr?
His aesthetic is uncompromising to say the least, and while most audiences have
trouble approaching “art films” like The
Descendants or even Malick’s The Tree
of Life, Tarr belongs on a whole different playing field.
But there is a brutal truth in Tarr (working once again with novelist László Krasznahorkai), coming at you in 24 frames per second (no
digital here!), and one most apparent in his now final film, The Turin Horse. This deeply disturbing
work borderlines on parody of art cinema, mainly because Tarr is a relentless
filmmaker who never compromises in his portraiture of a life void of hope.
Clocking in at just over two and a half hours, The Turin Horse is the most polished of Tarr’s films in terms of
reaching a new height of minimalism, where everything to know about life comes
in the small details the filmmaker slowly reveals. A mutual friend of mine, who
is a close friend of Tarr, suggested to let the film “wash over me.” And bathe
in despair I did.
