Review of Werckmeister Harmonies (2001) by Zoran S — 20 Apr 2009
On repeat viewing, Werckmeister Harmonies remains a formally stunning and intellectually curious work from Bela Tarr. While it lacks the political complexity (and satire) of Satantango, it is an absorbing allegory of the appeals of fascism even if the film may mystify that appeal at times.
The film's attempt, in other words, to link fascism to cosmological cycles of order and disorder may work against the intense immediacy of the material world depicted in the often ten minute takes.
Yet, therein lies its strength as well: the disjunction between the immortality of the cosmos and the emptiness of the material world, as The Prince's rant indicates, must be filled with misdirected anger and rage.
Perversely, everything must be reduced to ruins, an eternity of destruction, for any stable sense of human dignity to emerge. Poor Janos: by trying to bring the cosmos down to earth, he becomes a dim-witted agent of forces of death and destruction.
This review of Werckmeister Harmonies (2001) was written by Zoran S on 20 Apr 2009.
Werckmeister Harmonies has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
