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 Paris, je t'aime (2006)

A nightmarish vision of a town going mad

It is closing time in a bar somewhere in Eastern Europe. Someone says, "Show us, Janos". A blank faced young man, Janos Valuska (Lars Rudolph), begins to organize a ballet of inebriated patrons playing the Sun and the Moon turning in their orbits. Valuska pleads, "All I ask is that you step with me into the bottomlessness." As the dance continues, the men are spun. They stop suddenly as the orchestrater tells us that "in this awful, incomprehensible dusk, everything that lives is still…" Then, with a push, the dancers carry on until the Earth emerges from the Moon's shadow. The eternal conflict between darkness and light begins again.

Containing shots that last up to fifteen minutes at a time, Werckmeister Harmonies, the latest film by Bela Tarr (Satantango, Damnation), is a nightmarish vision of a society duped by political demagogues and distracted by circuses, being led into a cycle of violence and despair. Based on a novel by László Krasznahorkai, it is a powerful and disturbing film that, in its surreal depiction of growing madness in an unnamed town, is reminiscent of Roy Andersson's Songs From the Second Floor. The film takes its name from the theories of Janos' "uncle" Gyorgy Eszter (Peter Fitz), a musicologist who tells him of his obsession with the legacy of Andreas Werckmeister, a 17th century German musician who created the twelve-tone scale. Eszter believes that perfect order does injustice to the holiness of music, and says that the heavens move to their own music.

As Janos leaves the bar and walks through the cold and half-deserted streets, streets that in T.S. Eliot's phrase "follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent", an enormous van drives up the main street and comes to rest in a great empty square in the town center. A circus is in town. The exhibit contains the world's largest whale, dead and stuffed with tiny staring eyes, and The Prince, a shadowy figure that we never see. The town is full of rumors of impending violence. Janos sees the whale and watches a growing group of seemingly unemployed middle aged men gather silently around fires in the square. He seems to know everyone in the town. To further her political agenda of "town cleansing" (read ethnic cleansing), Eszter's estranged wife, Tunde (Hanna Schygulla), sends the compliant Janos on errands. He is told to put the children of the police chief to bed but, as if presaging the coming violence, they stomp on their beds to a cacophony of noise while one shouts at Janos over and over again. "It will be hard for you". "It will be hard for you." He is also asked to listen to conversations in the square and report back to her, but he only hears the Prince saying, `What they build and what they will build is illusion and lies. What they think and what they will think is ridiculous'.

When the signal is given, the men in the square come together and march towards us with growing anger in a hypnotic parade lasting five terrifying minutes. They go on a rampage, setting fires and ransacking a hospital, beating the sick in an unbroken orgy of violence. Patients huddle by their beds in silent fear. Suddenly a door is opened. Confronted by the menacing faces, an emaciated old man stands naked in a shower bathed in an amorphous light. Transfixed by what they have seen, the men abandon their task and retreat silently into the street. On the morning after, order is restored. The van is broken down and the whale is exposed as little more than an overstuffed balloon. The Sun emerges from behind the Moon to the swell of ineffably beautiful music. We have reached the end of the cycle only to begin dancing again when the next Prince calls the tune.