Werckmeister Harmonies

Bela Tarr - 2000
The takes are much longer than damnation, huge pieces. There is also a hell of a lot of movement, almost incredibly slow waltzes, as the camera in its staely manner pirrouhettes, circles as sometimes though tying the characters (this is all in that great first shot). There is a sense of following around rooms often, through the house, from one car to another. Also we track and walk here. This can be over the shoulder, or in one memorable shot quite close to faces, along the street.
This perhaps has more elan than ‘Damnation’, with the themes of violence, the apocalyptic and fantastic, more immediately striking, slimy, unearthly images.
Themes of the artist, compromise, the power of fantasy to dominate, condescend, and raise.