BBB
(out of 5)
Visionary filmmaker Bela Tarr applies his languid, seemingly formless style to a story of frustrated love. Amid its beautifully shot monochrome ruminations is the tale of a fraught love affair between a man and a woman, his anger at not being happy in love periodically interrupted by a wise, angel-on-earth type who spouts poetic, scriptural wisdom at him. It’s a Rorschach test of a movie, the sort of thing that will mean something different to everyone who watches it, but despite a very calm pace (Tarr always strikes me as the man who finds Tarkovsky exasperatingly hasty), it’s not boring, but put on your patient hat and be prepared for some capital-A Arthouse stuff anyway.
Hungarian Film Institute, Hungarian Television, Mokép
Directed by Bela Tarr
Screenplay by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Bela Tarr
Cinematography by Gabor Medvigy
Produced by Jozsef Marx
Music by Mihaly Vig
Production Design by Gyula Pauer
Costume Design by Gyula Pauer
Film Editing by Agnes Hranitzky
Toronto International Film Festival: 1988
