http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/tarr.htm
Hungary / Germany / Switzerland 1994

 

For the last decade, the name Béla Tarr has surfaced once in a while, but once spoken out, the name lingers, even though one never is closer to Tarr than the sound of his name alone. The reason may well be, that his works are largely unseen. For the longest time, Tarr has only been viewable at institutions as MoMA. Few have seen Werckmeister Harmonies, fewer have seen Sátántangó, even fewer has seen the remaining works of Tarr. Most only know of his work thru the writings of esoteric cinephiles, who praise and hail, or by commented influence upon such directors as for instance Gus van Sant. That is until now, where his films are being released on DVD, which allows not only – finally – to get to know his work, but by repeated viewings to study and appreciate it.

Based on Krasznahorkai's novel by the same name, Sátántangó tells the story of group of people in a poor Hungarian agricultural collective after the fall of Communism, and how their despair is – not changed, but – altered by the arrival of a stranger, who in turn cheats them for their money and hopes. It is divided into twelve sections, telling several stories, which, while the film is meant to be seen in one viewing, can be seen individually to be reflected upon, such as the story of the little girl, who first poisons her beloved cat, then herself.

Tarr constructs the narrative of, by J. Hoberman named, “…morose blocks of real time.” At times, the camera appears to capture nothing but time, having people and / or events just passing thru, as for instance the opening shot, where the camera slowly follows cows passing the screen. Genette said about tense, that even if no action occurs in a shot, the time devoted to a shot builds up expectation of action.

Having said, that contemporary cinema doesn’t invest the time or space needed to understand people, Tarr not only expands time beyond what narrative or tense would require, but space likewise, by tracking shots and extreme depth of field. Tarr seems to use this expectation to transpose the resignation and despair of the villagers in order to articulate the aimless desperation of the actions. Hence, even the simplest acts, as choosing to stand rather than to pull a chair and sit down, become significant, as they are action in “morose blocks of real time.”

Similar with Tarr’s use of space. The village is described as being cut off from the rest of the world by bog, mud and rain, and is visually displayed by either empty spaces or few pieces of furniture. If people weren’t present, one would be inclined to say, that the village was uninhabited – a ghost town.

While Sátántangó, due to it being in black and white, Hungarian and running 7 hours, on paper may sound like the ultimate joke about art-house cinema, it is nothing less than a mesmerizing life changing cinematic experience.

Henrik Sylow

Poster

Theatrical Release: February 8, 1994

Reviews    More Reviews  DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

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Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 2 - PAL

Runtime 6:59:46 (4% PAL speedup)
Video

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital Hungarian Mono
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Artificial Eye

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.66:1

Edition Details:
• See below for each disc.

DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2006
Three digipack in box

Chapters 12

 

 

Comments:
Despite the presence of macro-blocking and visible blocks of difference shades of grey pixels, when zooming in, the transfer looks great. Strong blacks, no visible artefacts while viewing, strong details.

 - Henrik Sylow  

Overall, a very good package indeed. Decent video for a non-anamorphic transfer (i.e., leaps and bounds better than the video featured on those horrible bootlegs). Both the AE and the Clavis sets are more or less the same. However, the AE set is slightly better than the Clavis set in terms of subtitles (style, position in the frame...and actual translation to a small near minuscule extent), package design (the AE set features three slim keepcases that slip into a nice, sturdy cardboard sleeve vs. Clavis' double-disc size amaray style case), and video in a certain respect. Specifically, the Clavis set appears to have a sporadic stream of debris that runs along the top edge of the frame. While this stream of debris does not distract from the viewing experience of the film, it is nevertheless a video defect. However, said defect is not on the AE edition of the film (so far as I can tell from my quick spot check). Thus, the AE edition takes the lead video wise (although aside from this small difference, the video on both is more or less the same). Although we have more than two weeks to go in the month of November, I still nominate AE's edition of Satantango for DVD of the Month. The DVD presentation of the film could be better, but it is nevertheless truly exciting to finally have this film on DVD. Throw away those infamous bootlegs and pick up the AE set of Satantango. Irimias and Petrina have finally arrived on the DVD format. All hail.

Karim (a.k.a livullmannfan)

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Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 2 - PAL

Runtime 2:11:37 (4% PAL speedup)
Video

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.70 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

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

Bitrate

Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital Hungarian Mono
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Artificial Eye

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.66:1

Edition Details:
• Béla Tarr filmography
• ...
• Chapters:
• 1 - The News is They're Coming
• 2 - Rise From The Dead
• 3 - Know Something

DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2006
digipack

Chapters 3

 

  

 



DVD Menus
 

 


Screen Captures


subtitle sample

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

 

Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 2 - PAL

Runtime 1:59:28 (4% PAL speedup)
Video

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.70 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

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

Bitrate

Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital Hungarian Mono
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Artificial Eye

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.66:1

Edition Details:
• 4 - The Spider's Function
• 5 - Comes Unstitched
• 6 - The Spider's Function II

DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2006
digipack

Chapters 3

 

 

 



DVD Menus
 

 


Screen Captures

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

 

Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 0 - PAL

Runtime 2:49:41 (4% PAL speedup)
Video

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.60 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

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

Bitrate

Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital Hungarian Mono
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Artificial Eye

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.66:1

Edition Details:
• 7 - Irimiás Gives a Speech
• 8 - Perspective From the Front
• 9 - Go to Heaven? Have Nightmares?
• 10 - Perspective From the Rear
• 11 - Just Trouble and Work
• 12 - No Way Out

DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2006
digipack

Chapters 6

 

 



DVD Menus

 

 


Screen Captures

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 2 - PAL




 

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