Werkmeister Harmonies is one of my top-five favorite movies. I loved the (approximately) first half of Sarantango but could not stomach the cat scene and walked out midway.
I believe Bela Tarr that the cat was not tortured, clearly sound effects were doing a lot. But I cannot convince myself that I was seeing footage of an animal being well-treated. It's hard for me to reconcile that with a filmmaker whose work I've otherwise loved.
I've been lucky enough to see the film three times theatrically with enthusiastic audiences: once at the old Fine Arts (theater #2) during the Chicago International Film Festival in 1994, and twice in later years at Facets. It think it really says something that at the CIFF screening Tarr was present, and most of the audience stuck around another hour for a Q&A.
In addition to the ones mentioned, I’ve also seen DAMNATION (which clocks in at a slim 116 minutes) and Tarr’s hour-long MACBETH, which unfolds in just two takes, one of which is epic in a way few big-budget films dare to be.
part of my brain wants to see this movie very badly, but a significant part thinks I'll end up in Keith's camp, unable to view the cat section with any remove. I read what Scott writes about that section, and it's sounds beautiful and central to the film as a whole.... but there's a difference between reading about it and seeing it happen with a real animal, and I worry it would either mar the experience for me, or I'd be tempted to skip that section and miss a very important part.
but I'm very glad I have people like you two to tell me about the experience!
I saw this at Lincoln Center in that weird, quiet time of year between Christmas and New Years in a theater that was a little less than half full. The couple in front of me made it through both intermissions but, with only about 40 minutes left, finally decided that they had enough and bailed. In my mind, it is the scene where we watch Irimias eat a whole bowl of soup?
What a picture! I hope Criterion adds it back to the channel sometime soon.
Werkmeister Harmonies is one of my top-five favorite movies. I loved the (approximately) first half of Sarantango but could not stomach the cat scene and walked out midway.
I believe Bela Tarr that the cat was not tortured, clearly sound effects were doing a lot. But I cannot convince myself that I was seeing footage of an animal being well-treated. It's hard for me to reconcile that with a filmmaker whose work I've otherwise loved.
I've been lucky enough to see the film three times theatrically with enthusiastic audiences: once at the old Fine Arts (theater #2) during the Chicago International Film Festival in 1994, and twice in later years at Facets. It think it really says something that at the CIFF screening Tarr was present, and most of the audience stuck around another hour for a Q&A.
In addition to the ones mentioned, I’ve also seen DAMNATION (which clocks in at a slim 116 minutes) and Tarr’s hour-long MACBETH, which unfolds in just two takes, one of which is epic in a way few big-budget films dare to be.
part of my brain wants to see this movie very badly, but a significant part thinks I'll end up in Keith's camp, unable to view the cat section with any remove. I read what Scott writes about that section, and it's sounds beautiful and central to the film as a whole.... but there's a difference between reading about it and seeing it happen with a real animal, and I worry it would either mar the experience for me, or I'd be tempted to skip that section and miss a very important part.
but I'm very glad I have people like you two to tell me about the experience!
I saw this at Lincoln Center in that weird, quiet time of year between Christmas and New Years in a theater that was a little less than half full. The couple in front of me made it through both intermissions but, with only about 40 minutes left, finally decided that they had enough and bailed. In my mind, it is the scene where we watch Irimias eat a whole bowl of soup?
What a picture! I hope Criterion adds it back to the channel sometime soon.