Sátántangó [1994]
If you scroll down just a bit, you'll find my review for A Torinói Ló (The Turin Horse) which was my introduction to the films and the universe of director Béla Tarr. Now I didn't quite enjoy The Turin Horse as much as I expected to, but I came to be fascinated by the neat little world that Tarr explored in the film. The long takes, the repetitive almost drone-like pace, the misery and the bleak, emotionless world was something right up my alley despite being a bit hard to swallow.
The Turin Horse is probably the film where Tarr takes his style to an almost satirical level as if it was a parody of the what people already thought of his films. It was slower than ever before, even more repetitive, with less dialogue and a story which could be summarized in a sentance (Spoiler, the family horse gets sick and the father and his daughter starve to death) and frankly, it was quite boring. However despite being a slow and boring film, The Turin Horse still somehow fascinated me and I came to want more from Béla Tarr's films.
My next step was naturally to find a cinema that screened Sátántangó, Tarr's 7-hour long masterpiece, which didn't prove to be difficult since several of the Hungarian director's films where to be screened this Autumn at a cinema here in Stockholm. So I falled a bag with sandwhiches, brought a bottle of water and left to spend the day with the bleak, depressing life of a village of Hungarians.
Viewing Sátántangó is not only an enormous project due to its length but also because of how heavy the film is, through themes, characters, setting and overall atmosphere. The film has us following a pair of characters from some village somewhere in Hungary. We know very little of where and when it takes place which adds to the time less nature of the film. Is it taking place in 1994 or is it maybe not even in this decade? The film could even be futuristic, all we know is that the village is in some almost apocalyptical place where it constantly rains over the empty and torn houses.
The film begins with Futaki waking up to the sound of bells, which is explained to be odd since there are no place close by where the sound may have originated from. Futaki is later to be informed about the reapparance of a past villager who has presumed to be dead. The mysterious Irimiás is introduced by word as this mythical man that the villagers seem to fear. At one point Irimiás is referred to as The Wizard, leaving us to believe that this mythical man has some kind of power over the poor common people in the village.
Going on and digging through the plot almost feels redundat since this is a Béla Tarr film and the plot isn't really all that relevant as it is merely yet another tool in Tarr's repertoir where the more important elements of the film lies in the cinematography, the acting, the camera work, the atmosphere and maybe the most important one, the characters. The plot tells the story of how Irimiás returns to the village and tricks the population into giving away all their hard earned money to him throughout the course of seven hours, but if you came into this film hoping for an exciting plot then you've done wrong somewhere along the line.
The strong suits of this film lie in other places. You have the mesmerizing and immersive long takes which might seem pretentious when they're not really contributing anything other than a sense of immersion and atmosphere to the film instead of being relevant to the plot or story. One could argue that Sátántangó could probably be shortened by quite a lot by removing several of these long shots but the film would not be the masterpiece it is known to be if one where to gut it like a fish. Add to that an incredible sense for cinematography, which has created this world and even this universe if we want to take Tarr's other works into consideration of this run down village in the middle of nowhere where the sun never shines and the rain pours in excess.
Sátántangó is the ultimate Béla Tarr experience and I very well do believe that it is one of the greatest films of all time. It's a simple story which yet can be picked apart in many different ways in a discussion of deeper themes and symbolism in the film (does Irimiás represent Satan and the doctor God?) and its the most expansive work Tarr has done, with riveting, deep characters which add enough to depth to the film that a majority of them has a whole hour dedicated to their handling of Irmiás return. The atmosphere is as expected in any film of Tarr's, with bleak and dark landscapes with depressing run down houses, poor people who seem to survive despite barely owning the clothes on their bodies, and it is all realized through Mihály Vig's phenomenal soundtrack (if you even can call it that) or random assortment of compositions, from the tango at the bar, to the repetitive joyful accordion tune from the dance at the pub.
When I viewed Stalker I knew I had seen something phenomenal. A piece of film that, for me, stood above everything I had previously seen to that day. I have not felt that feeling regarding Sátántangó, but I instead know that what I've seen is so far above everything I've experienced that it feels wrong to lump it into the same category as Stalker, Persona or The Tree Of Life. Sátántangó is vast and expansive, it sucks the energy out of you and only leaves a certain emptiness, a void which you yourself have to fill with your own interpretation of what it is that you have viewed. It is a fully realized masterpiece which I don't think quite compares to anything previously created with similar intent.
Am I saying that Sátántangó is the greatest film of all time? Definitely not. What I am saying is that this is a work of art that can't be compared to other films out there, not even the other works of Béla Tarr. It's so different and so unique that it can't really be appreciated the same way you approach films but it does what it sets out to do in a phenomenal fashion.
You often hear people talk about having these check lists for things they want to see and visit before they die. Maybe they want to swim amongst the coral reefs, maybe they want to visit Times Square and see the lit up skyscrapers, or view The Grand Canyon. But amongst all those human experiences I definitely believe that seeing Sátántangó front-to-back with as few pauses as possible at a huge screen at a cinema somewhere, is one of those things that every human owe it to themself to experience.
Sátántangó [1994]
dir. B. Tarr
10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
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