Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)

In the last twenty years, it has become clear that Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr is a major contributor to the art of cinema. His 415-minute adaptation of Krasznahorkai's novel Satantango gained him the acclaim of those yet unconvinced by his Cassavetes-like family dramas of the 80's.

In 2000, he gifted us with the Werckmeister Harmonies, 2 hours and 40 minutes comprised of a mere 39 shots. The film follows (speaking of Tarkovsky) a classic "Holy Fool" character who wanders through a village on the verge of riots due to economic depression. A circus arrives with a stuffed whale, and a much more insidious character in tandem referred to as "The Prince." Eventually, the unseen midget's apocalyptic nihilism incites the dissatisfied peasants to revolt with torrential violence. Plot is really a sidenote in this exercise, though it is rich in allegory and intellectual puzzles (dealing mostly with music theory). Composed of glorious and astonishingly long takes, the camera swirls for 15 to 20 minutes at a time without cutting, orchestrating hundreds of extras into perfectly executed setpieces.

The atmosphere is thick and Tarr provides dialogue to rival Lynch in creepiness and suggestion, including a ten-minute conversation with a hotel concierge about whether or not the whale is "the cause of it all." Jancos's inoccency is precisely the correct vehicle to explore the intellectual and emotional strings that Tarr toys with. This is one of the finest films of the last ten years, an exquisitely constructed work of art that only yields more riches at each new viewing. Tarr consciously takes up Tarkovsky's lyrical and metaphysical torch. That alone, is worth giving thanks for. Clearly, even at his age (51), Tarr is just getting started.