Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

Directors:

Béla Tarr
Ágnes Hranitzky (co-director)

Writers:

László Krasznahorkai (novel)
László Krasznahorkai (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

1 February 2001 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost...

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Whale | Circus | Surrealism | Raid

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Lars Rudolph	...	János Valuska
Peter Fitz	...	György Eszter
Hanna Schygulla	...	Tünde Eszter
János Derzsi	...	Man In The Broad-Cloth Coat
Djoko Rosic	...	Man In Western Boots (as Djoko Rossich)
Tamás Wichmann	...	Man In The Sailor-Cap
Ferenc Kállai	...	Director
Mihály Kormos	...	Factotum
Putyi Horváth	...	Porter (as dr. Horváth Putyi)
Enikö Börcsök
Éva Almássy Albert	...	Aunt Piri (as Almási Albert Éva)
Irén Szajki	...	Mrs. Harrer
Alfréd Járai	...	Lajos Harrer
György Barkó	...	Mr. Nadabán
Lajos Dobák	...	Mr. Volent
András Fekete	...	Mr. Árgyelán
Gyuri Dósa Kiss
Józsi Mihályfi
Péter Dobai	...	Chief Constable
Géza Balkay
Kati Lázár	...	Sorter
Péter Tóth
László feLugossy	...	Housepainter
Gyula Pauer	...	Mr. Hagelmayer
Barna Mihók	...	Coachman
Viktor Lois	...	Loader
Béla Máriáss	...	Mr. Mádai
Mátyás Dráfi	...	Man In The Fur-Cap
József Ropog	...	The Man Beside Him
Sandor Bese	...	The Prince
Erika Horineczky
Béla Nagy
Ágnes Kamondy
Péter Magyar
Dóra Kováts
Gábor Werner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lajos Bulocs
Ferenc Gazdag
Gyula Herpai
Tibor Komáromi
Géza Kósa
József Szántó
János Váradi
Miklós Waszlavik		(as Vaszlavik Miklós)

Directed by
Béla Tarr
Ágnes Hranitzky		(co-director)

Writing credits
László Krasznahorkai		(novel "The Melancholy of Resistance")
László Krasznahorkai		(screenplay) &
Béla Tarr		(screenplay)
Péter Dobai		(additional dialogue) &
Gyuri Dósa Kiss		(additional dialogue) &
György Fehér		(additional dialogue)

Produced by
Ralph E. Cotta	....	associate producer
Franz Goëss	....	producer
Paul Saadoun	....	producer
Miklós Szita	....	producer
Béla Tarr	....	associate producer
Joachim von Vietinghoff	....	producer

Original Music by
Mihály Vig

Cinematography by
Patrick de Ranter
Miklós Gurbán
Erwin Lanzensberger
Gábor Medvigy
Emil Novák
Rob Tregenza

Film Editing by
Ágnes Hranitzky

Set Decoration by
Sándor Katona
Zsuzsa Mihalek
Béla Zsolt Tóth

Costume Design by
János Breckl

Makeup Department
Erzsébet Rácz	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Lajos Gerhardt	....	production manager
Gábor Koncz	....	unit manager
Gábor Téni	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jeroen Frantzen	....	assistant director
Sebestyén Kodolányi	....	assistant director
Roland Vranik	....	assistant director
Csaba Bagossy	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Sándor Katona	....	set dresser
Gyula Pauer	....	artistic consultant
Béla Zsolt Tóth	....	property master

Sound Department
Csaba Erös	....	boom operator
László Gyõrffy	....	sound recordist (as Szentmihályi Gyõrffy László)
Gábor ifj. Erdélyi	....	sound editor
Brigitta Kajdácsi	....	dialog editor
György Kovács	....	sound designer
György Kovács	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Éva Karczag	....	sculptor
Iván Pohárnok	....	whale mock-up designer
Péter Pozsonyi	....	special effects technician
András Rose	....	sculptor

Visual Effects by
Csaba Juhász	....	title design and production

Camera and Electrical Department
Csaba Bankhardt	....	grip
István Decsi	....	assistant camera
Miklós Hajdu	....	gaffer
Tibor Oláh	....	assistant camera
Géza Pásztor	....	assistant camera
János Tóth	....	dolly grip
Jörg Widmer	....	Steadicam operator

Editorial Department
András Bederna	....	grader
Baba Deimanik	....	grader (as Tamásné Deimanik)
Renate Malinowski	....	grader
Éva Szentandrási	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Tamás Bolba	....	voice dubbing: Lars Rudolph
Péter Haumann	....	voice dubbing: Peter Fitz
Attila Kaszás	....	voice dubbing: Sandor Bese
László Moog	....	technician
Marianna Moór	....	voice dubbing: Hanna Schygulla
Zoltán Pataki	....	technician
Péter Hagen	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• 13 Productions
• Arte
• Fondazione Montecinemaverita
• Goëss Film
• Magyar Mozgókép Alapítvány
• Magyar Televízió Müvelödési Föszerkesztöség (MTV) (I)
• Nemzeti Kultúrális Alapprogram
• Országos Rádió és Televízió Testület (ORTT)
• Rai Tre Radiotelevisione Italiana
• Studio Babelsberg
• Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion (VVF)
• Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Distributors

• Nederlands Filmmuseum (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (2003) (UK) (subtitled)
• Blaq Out (2005) (France) (DVD) (French subtitles)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2002) (Netherlands) (video)
• Pierre Grise Distribution

Also Known As:

Die werckmeisterschen Harmonien (Germany)
Le armonie di Werckmeister (Italy)
Les Harmonies Werckmeister (France)
Werckmeister Harmonies (International: English title)

Runtime:

145 min

Country:

Hungary | Italy | Germany | France

Language:

Hungarian | Slovak

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:G (Quebec) (DVD rating) | Canada:PG (Alberta) (2003) | France:U | Netherlands:AL | UK:15

Company:

13 Productions

Trivia:

During the shooting the temperature dropped to -15 degrees Celsius.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Janos finds Lajos, who is supposedly dead, yet you can clearly see the actor breathing.

Quotes:

János Valuska: You are the sun. The sun doesn't move, this is what it does. You are the Earth. The Earth is here for a start, and then the Earth moves around the sun. And now, we'll have an explanation that simple folks like us can also understand, about immortality...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Gerry (2002)

A challenging masterwork

SPOILERS

It is only after a third viewing that I dare venture some comments on this awesome film. That I was fascinated from the start was beyond doubt but its funereal tempo caused me to nod to the extent that even on a second viewing there were whole sequences I had missed. By the third attempt I feel ready."Werckmeister Harmonies" is one of the great artistic challenges of our age. I cannot begin to admit that I understand it fully but I do know that it carries those haunting resonances remaining long after the final shot, that I recently found in the Japanese "Eureka" and nearly half a century ago in Antonioni's "L'Avventura". As there is very little evidence that even the professionals have got to grips with the film's meaning - most are clearly as mesmerised as me but talk mainly about style, in other words how the director looks at his world, I will venture a few ideas even if they are erroneous. Bela Tarr's masterwork can only be understood as an allegory. In the 17th century the German musician, Andreas Werckmeister, conceived the idea of equal temperament thus enabling music to be written and played in any key. In doing so, according to the philosopher musicologist of the film, the purity of the natural cosmic language and inevitability of ordered sound became tainted. As a metaphor for this concept we are shown a small Hungarian town in mid-winter under the threat of civil chaos, The catalyst that brings this about is the arrival in the main square of a circus consisting of only one giant lorry containing a stuffed whale and a mysterious figure billed as the Prince who occasionally speaks but is never seen except as a shadow on a wall. The circus is a challenge to man's understanding of his safe familiar world and when, as here, there is a failure of comprehension the result is a crescendo into anarchy. A mob go on the rampage and, in a sequence of extreme barbarity, attack the local hospital beating up the defenceless patients. That the film works as an intensely human document is due to the fact that the director has given us a character with whom we can identify in the form of Janos, a young postman, whose odyssey throughout the wintry town we follow every step. As each scene takes place in real time generally in a single shot, a walk down a street is the length it takes to achieve. Thus Tarr builds into his structure that element of reflective time for the audience that is a hallmark of the cinema of Angelopoulos and Aoyami. We assimilate Janos's impressions for the time it takes him to experience them. As much has already been written about Tarr's use of the long take I will just add that the attack on the hospital is every bit as powerful an action sequence as the massacre on the Odessa Steps in "Battleship Potemkin". What however is so extraordinary about Tarr's great set-piece is the way it generates a similar power not by Eisenstein-like montage but by long tracking shots. Equally extraordinary is the use of silence. Not one of the victims cries out in distress, there is just the sound of furniture and fixtures being smashed. Whereas Eisenstein homes in on characters and faces, Tarr views his as a dark almost faceless collective. There is just one face recollected from a previous crowd scene to relate this terrible event to the casually familiar. The sequence reaches its climax when a curtain is pulled down from a bath to reveal in longshot the naked standing body of an old man, just flesh devoid of personality. This has the astonishing effect of taming the mob so that they gradually slink away in shame. There is a strange parallel here with our final glimpse of Janos sitting on a hospital bed, traumatised after his unsuccessful attempt at escape from the town. The only sounds he makes are quietly sung unrelated notes. His uncle, the musicologist is with him. He admits to the by now uncomprehending Janos that he has finally compromised by tuning his piano to equal temperament as the only way of perhaps selling the instrument. For the rest all is silence. The musician visits the square by now deserted to see for himself the whale abandoned outside its wrecked carrier. It is Tarr's haunting resolution of a nightmare vision of a world gone mad.