Damnation

Bela Tarr - 1988
Those long takes, stiller here. The big black and white contrasts. Similar images to later Tarr pop up, dancing and so on. The people can appear like ants, but incredibly heavy ones. There is a preference for deep framings, often with part of the frame obscured by a wall, or bars. There is often someone watching someone else, hidden. Also note how it can occasionally go very white, airy, ghostly.
Tarr’s slow camera movements are perhaps partly to do with making the camera as unobtrusive as possible. Fast tracks, as well as difficult, would draw attention, while the either imperceptible or very slow movements, slower than the action, gives the sense of slow withdrawals.
The themes are pretty existential; note this was in ’87. Perhaps a bit more abstract, and without the humour of 90’s Tarr, but most pieces in place.