Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance is essential to our survival.

 

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

 

1) Our weekly Newsletter and Calendar Updates sent to your Inbox!
2) Access to over 100,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

 

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change! / a coffee!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. I am indebted to your generosity.


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Les Harmonies Werckmeister" or "Werckmeister Harmonies" or "Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien" )

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/tarr.htm
Hungary/Germany 2000

 

This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown time in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince—arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens that builds inexorably toward violence. In thirty-nine hypnotic long takes engraved in ghostly black and white, auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky conjure an apocalyptic vision of dreamlike dread and fathomless beauty.

***

Hungarian director Bela Tarr follows his mammoth seven-hour 'Satantango' with this critically acclaimed story about a small Eastern European town on the brink of disaster. When a showman brings a huge whale to the town, along with a sinister side attraction known as the Prince, Lajos (Lars Rudolph) is fascinated by the creature and sees it as proof of a great cosmic design. However, the whale also proves to be a magnet for unrest, and the mob that gathers outside soon edges towards violence.

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 12th, 2000 - Belgium (Cinedecouvertes Age D'or Film Festival Brussels)

Reviews                                                    More Reviews                                              DVD Reviews

 

Review: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Simultaneously available from Criterion on 4K UHD:

  

Coming to 4K UHD from Curzons in October 2024:

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion Spine #1215 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 2:26:46.464        
Video

1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 48,873,528,228 bytes

Feature: 37,312,641,024 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.04 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

LPCM Audio Hungarian 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit

Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Criterion

 

1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 48,873,528,228 bytes

Feature: 37,312,641,024 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.04 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

Family Nest (1979), Tarr’s first feature film (1:45:34)
New interview with Tarr by film critic Scott Foundas (21:12)
New 4K Trailer (1:44)

PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim


Blu-ray and 4K UHD Release Date: April 16th, 2024
Transparent
Blu-ray Case

Chapters 17

 

 

Comments:

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

 


Menus / Extras

 


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

1) Artificial Eye (original) - Region 2 - PATOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (original) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (2009 Re-issue) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (original) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (2009 Re-issue) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (original) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) Artificial Eye (2009 Re-issue) - Region 2 - PAL TOP

2) Criterion - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


 

More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE

 

 
Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Simultaneously available from Criterion on 4K UHD:

  

Coming to 4K UHD from Curzons in October 2024:

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion Spine #1215 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

 CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Thank You!