NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (April 2024): Criterion have transferred Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Béla Tarr". We compared the Artificial Eye DVD releases of Werckmeister Harmonies HERE in 2009 and some captures with the original (2000) and re-issue (2009) to the new 1080P below. This is simultaneously released by Criterion on 4K UHD and while I have seen it on my system - it always takes time to render the 2160P captures. We hope to add them soon. The new transfer looks marvelous - significantly improved from the 15-year old SD transfers - with much tighter lines, frequent depth, more information in the frame, much better contrast etc.. It's a dramatic improvement. Of course, the 4K UHD exemplifies those superiorities with richer black levels and an even crisper appearance. Magnificent.

NOTE: the bare-bones 4K UHD disc is offered in a package with one 4K UHD disc of the film and this Blu-ray with the feature and special features (see below.)

NOTE: We have added 56 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original Hungarian language. Werckmeister Harmonies has modest effects relying mostly on the score is by Mihály Vig (NotFilm, Béla Tarr's The Turin Horse, The Man from London, Satantango etc.) and prosaic Book 1 - Prelude No. 8 in E-flat minor (BWV 853) from The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Sr. (played during the scene where Tünde Eszter is dancing with the Chief Constable holding a gun.) It sounds much more resonant than the lossy DVDs. Another 'Nolo contendere'. I thought I noticed the sync off but it was probably the Scotch. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray. Their 4K UHD is, like all, region FREE.

The Criterion Blu-ray includes Tarr's first feature Family Nest (reviewed on DVD by Adam Lemke for DVDBeaver, HERE,) described by him as "Made when he was still in his early twenties, this first feature from Hungarian master Béla Tarr is an assured bit of filmmaking. Often compared to the work of John Cassavetes (an influence Tarr says he was yet to discover), the film tells the story of a young couple who are forced to share their small one bedroom apartment with the man’s parents. Tarr films the proceedings in a series of extremely tight close-ups, often focusing on the faces and hands of these very real characters as they sit around and drink, trying to cope with their harsh living conditions. The kitchen-sink approach to the realism may remind some of the work of the great Ken Loach (the use of non-professional actors for example) and there is certainly no denying that a powerful raw emotion is on display here. Fans of Tarr’s later metaphysical work will be hard pressed to find much of the same cinematic qualities that have become his trademark, but the underlying notions of man vs. an oppressive environment should be fully apparent." It is transferred to this package with a modest bitrate (10 Mbps) at 8.5 Gig file size, 1080P transfer but is certainly watchable and better than the Facets DVD. Perhaps I will compare one day. Also included is a new 20-minute interview with 68-year-old Tarr by film critic Scott Foundas as the director describes his anarchistic view of filmmaking. There is also a new 4K Trailer and liner notes with an essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim (co-author, with Hong Sangsoo, of Tale of Cinema.).

Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies is adapted from a book The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai who also wrote the novel Satantango. We have a restless town, on the edge, where an oddly sparse circus rolls into a helpless town where an apocalyptic atmosphere is forming. This is a pessimistic political allegory of a time where the Eastern Bloc was undergoing major social unrest - flirtation with, another, totalitarian ideology. The title refers to the 17th century Baroque German organist and musical theorist Andreas Werckmeister who was considered immensely influential to the pioneering harmonic basis (well known to JS Bach) underlying almost all of subsequent Western musical theory. Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies is exceptionally brilliant. It's wonderful to get this visual film in the upgraded home-theater formats (approved by Tarr!) What a time we are living in. My God. It is hailed by many as one of the best films of the 21st century. I'm so thrilled with the Criterion Blu-ray and 4K UHD packages. This is one that might force you to upgrade if you are not an adopter yet. Certainly, our highest recommendation.

Gary Tooze