Béla Tarr

[criterionmaster]

Well joining on the bandwagon of ie, I will start making some director threads. You should do to; ie said something that makes sense, "Even if all you do is just read the name of the director, it's in your mind. It's more likely that you'll catch one of their movies" and I agree. Well this man is supposed to be a master, and I have Werckmeister harmóniák coming up on my queue so I will post my thoughts after seeing that. As will, I am assuming, misterbalco will on that film. And others may have seen some of his films, so discuss.

1. The Man from London (2007) (pre-production)
... aka A Londoni férfi (Hungary)
... aka Homme de Londres, L' (France)
2. Visions of Europe (2004) (segment "Prologue")
... aka Eurooppalaisia visioita (Finland)
... aka Europäische Visionen (Germany)
... aka Europeiska visioner (Finland: Swedish title)
3. Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)
... aka Harmonies Werckmeister, Les (France)
... aka Werckmeister Harmonies (International: English title)
... aka Werckmeisterschen Harmonien, Die (Germany)
4. Utazás az alföldön (1995)
... aka Journey on the Plain (International: English title)
5. Sátántangó (1994)
... aka Satan's Tango
... aka Satanstango (Germany)
6. City Life (1990)
7. Kárhozat (1988)
... aka Damnation
8. Öszi almanach (1985)
... aka Almanac of Fall
9. Panelkapcsolat (1982)
... aka The Prefab People (USA)
10. Macbeth (1982/II) (TV)
11. Szabadgyalog (1981)
... aka The Outsider
12. Családi tüzfészek (1979)
... aka Családi tûzfészek (Hungary)
... aka Family Nest
13. Hotel Magnezit (1978)

[misterbalco]

Found this about Werckmeister Harmonies from Krakpots old forum (RIP):

author: zedz

The title is a reference to the reconfiguration of western harmony by Werckmeister and this is alluded to in the (fifth?) scene of the film by reference to the black and white notes on the piano keyboard and the value of the semitone.

The alternation of dark and light (to which our attention is drawn in the first scene) and exterior and interior (initially synonymous) from shot/scene to shot/scene (as every scene is a single discrete shot the terms are interchangeable for this film) relates to Werckmeister's harmonies and is modelled on the chromatic scale. The film itself consists of three chromatic scales (12 notes / shots apiece) plus the concluding repetition of the tonic = 37 notes / shots.

The strict alternation of interior / exterior in the first 'scale' of twelve shots represents the old, uninflected harmony. Tarr represents the changes wrought by Werckmeister by overlaying a light / dark pattern which matches the pattern of black and white notes in the chromatic scale on a piano keyboard (e.g. WBWBWWBWBWBWW). Initially the first pattern (interior / exterior) matches the second (light / dark), but they soon go out of sync. He cleverly arranges this by coinciding the arrival of daylight (at which point exteriors become light and interiors become dark) with the film's sixth shot. (These shots would be the notes E and F if the chromatic scale was C).

This would be pure speculation (especially as the strict dark / light pattern is not followed in the second and third 'scales' of the film) were it not for a couple of pieces of corroboration.

Circumstantial: the fact the the film is 37 shots long - the same number as there are notes in a 3-octave chromatic scale - and that the film breaks conveniently into three sections that correspond to the three octaves (shots 1-12; 13-24; 25-37). The title of the film otherwise bears little relevance to the content of the film, and it doesn't come from the source novel.

Pretty convincing: After the first twelve notes of the chromatic scale, you begin again with the thirteenth note (i.e. return to C and begin the scale again an octave higher). Tarr begins the thirteenth shot of the movie with the same image that he began the first: a fire in a grate.

Thus proving this movie is one of the best ever.

[criterionmaster]

I never thought it was possible to make me want to see the film even more than I already do!

[ie]

Great name.

I haven't heard of any of his movies, but hopefully I'll come across one now.

[criterionmaster]

His cinematography is beautiful, poetic. He holds shots a long time which gives a chance to admire the images. Take the normal couple second shot, add at the very least 60 seconds and you got a Bela Tarr shot. Some could be turned off by this, as it could get redundant, but when the images are this stunning and photography this great it could easily go on longer and I wouldn’t have even cared.

The only thing I found a little odd was when Tarr was panning across the screen and stopped on that couple making out, I didn’t see the purpose of it. Was there one? Not that everything has to have a purpose or anything.

Misterbalco, what scenes stuck out to you the most? For me it was in the opening when Janos has all the drunks act as the sun, earth, and moon; also when Janos first sees the whale. They were both very strong scenes. The same piece of music is used in both and I just love it. It was like that very melancholy piece of music, just a beautiful piece. But the scene that made this film absolutely perfect was when the people were raiding and the old man is standing there in the tub, naked, it just made me … words cannot even describe the feeling.

There is just no way to describe this experience.

[agentknight]

I'm downloading Werckmeister soon. Oops I mean legally obtaining.

[criterionmaster]

Good choice, although it is worth buying.

[agentknight]

If I could I would, but I'm afraid I don't have access to a credit card.

[ie]

And it's rather expensive. Even if it's Seaman's favorite movie ever, if Agent Knight buys it and just finds that it's okay, that's a lot of money he just spent on a movie that's just okay in his books. Can't gamble like that.

[criterionmaster]

Well if he only thought it was okay he could head on over to the "Selling DVD's" section and list it in there so I could buy it!

I am going to add all this mans movies to my queue.

[criterionmaster]

News about Tarr's new film, The Man From London.

Facets.org

Hungarian director Bela Tarr spoke to journalists at the 37th Hungarian Film Week in Budapest about the revival of his project, The Man From London, which was stalled last winter after the death of French producer Humbert Balsan. The film, which is to begin shooting in March, is now a French-German-Hungarian co-production featuring an international cast. Tilda Swinton will star opposite Czech actor Miroslav Krobot. The cast also features British actress Leah Williams and Hungarian stars Janos Derzsi and Istvan Lenart. German cameraman Fred Kelemen is the Director of Photography. Tarr and Laszlo Krasznahorkai wrote the script based on a novel by Georges Simenon.

Co-production companies are T.T. Filmmuhely from the Hungarian side, 13 Productions from France and Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion from Germany. Tarr said a U.K. producer was dropped from the project when the producer was unable to fulfil the conditions of sale and leaseback and after the U.K. Film Council rejected the proposal.
The film will shoot in Corsica and in Hungary. Tarr and Hungarian producer Gabor Teni said they hoped to conclude shooting this calendar year and take two to three months for post-production work. Tarr said he would like to release the film before Cannes in 2007.

The producers hope the names of Swinton, Simenon and Tarr will help sell the film at the box office. The project does not yet have a global distributor. The film will be shot in English, French and Hungarian. Support from the French National Film Centre requires that 51% of the dialogue be in French. Tarr told journalist that he received word of Balsan's suicide two days before he was to begin shooting in Corsica in February 2005. Upon the French producer's death, French bank Coficine froze the disbursement. Using the project's Hungarian funds, plus extra support from Eurimages and ARTE, Tarr shot for nine days on the sets he had built for $2.3m (Euros 2m.) Tarr returned to Hungary to reorganise. He said was obliged to strike a new deal with Coficine, which held all rights to the film via its contract with Balsan's company, Ognon Pictures. Tarr has cut the project's budget, originally $5.9m (Euros 5m), by $838,494 (Euros 700,000) and cut the number of shooting days.

FEBRUARY 6th, 2006

Dear Friends,
This time we make an attempt to summarize the events that have happened since the shooting of The Man From London was interrupted and inform you about the current situation of the production as of today.
As we are all aware the film is being made in French-German and Hungarian co-production , with the support of European cultural foundations, such as ARTE and Eurimages.
The cash flow plan in the appendix of the co-production contract of the film stipulates in detail as to which party, when and how shall perform its obligations.
It is clear from that document that the cash flow of the funding on the Hungarian side is guaranteed by T.T.Filmmûhely, and the bank loans on the French and German side were warranted by Humbert Balsan via the Paris based Coficiné Bank.
Under such conditions we launched the preparatory work of the film. Last January we started to build the set costing 2 million Euros and move the crew, the equipment and the actors to Bastia on Corsica.
Just two days before the planned first day of the shooting we got the tragic news that Humbert Balsan had died!
In this shocking situation we had to postpone the start of the shooting, however, finally, in agreement with our co-producers and with the powerful help of our supporters (with the direct involvement of ARTE and Eurimages) we started the shooting despite the fact that the cash-flow on the French side stopped, and Coficiné froze the disbursement.
In this vacuum situation we managed to shoot for 9 days so, that T.T.Filmmûhely cross-financed on to the French side.
After that, as the payments were frozen Tanit, the subcontractor on Corsica – who had been in a contractual relationship with Humbert Balsan – stopped working, terminated the contract and obliged us in a resolution by the notary public to dismantle the set and leave the location of the shooting.
It became obvious that the management and the lawyers of Ognon Pictures do not intend to deal with the production any more - in the most cynical manner they maliciously abandoned the crew, the equipment and the co-production partners. Therefore we invited the representatives of Mezzanine Film to come to Bastia, and in this dramatic situation they demonstrated a nice example of solidarity between filmmakers by committing themselves in a Memo Deal to continuing the film.
In those days we saw various forms of sympathy being declared, international and national film organizations expressed their solidarity as well which consolidated our resolution to finish film!
Once the chaos that followed the interruption of the shooting subsided, when there were no more obscure and scandalous articles in the press, we could finally stagger to our feet, and resume to working.
Our German partners reassured us that they continue to be our co-producers and are ready for future cooperation.
The two main supporters, ARTE and CNC (the French National Film Centre) expressed in a letter and in an e-mail respectively, that we can count on their support further on.
MMKA, the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation and the Minister of Culture of Hungary also made a promise that they support the production if the safe completion of the film is guaranteed.
Having obtained all these resolutions and guarantees a new co-production contract was made last July signed by Mezzanine Film as the French partner.
We worked out a budget for the completion which was based on a compromise shooting plan, in which - contrary to the original ideas - a quarter of the shooting would not take place on Corsica, but somewhere here in Eastern Europe.
With this we managed to cut down on the costs by approx. 700.000 Euros and align that with the funding available for us for this year
During the summer holiday season the reorganization process was slowed down enormously, however our lawyers in the Budapest and Paris based law firm offices of Hogan&Hartson started to clear up the legal status of the production.
In this process it turned out that Humbert Balsan’s company, the Ognon Pictures are indebted approx 13 million Euros, and a part of this debt package is our film but we don’t know in what proportion. Ognon has never made any settlement with or any communications to the co-producers. Ognon – without letting the co-producers know about it and without asking them – put all the rights of the film in pledge for Coficiné, including even those contracts that had not been concluded by them.
This contract of pledge was incorporated by the court!
In this legally paralyzed situation we had two options to chose from: we either fight for our truth in a trial procedure and thus regain our rights or have an out of court settlement with the bankruptcy officer of Ognon who has asked for protection against bankruptcy.
Having overcome our moral indignation, finally we chose for the latter option.
Through our lawyers we started negotiations with Coficiné, the biggest lender of Ognon and the beneficiary of the contract of pledge.
At the same time Mezzanine Film have come to a position that they would prefer a production of smaller size, less burdened with mortgages, therefore on September 5th, a date set in the co-production contract for revision and finalization we split up based on common agreement.
So at the meeting with Coficiné in Paris we participated with our new and final French partner, Paul Saadoun at our side (13 Production).
Coficiné was extremely pleased to see Paul Saadoun enter into the film and committed itself to complete the film.
So this is where we are at this moment. The agreement with Ognon and Coficiné has been concluded, the signed contract has been submitted to the court in Paris and we shall soon start shooting the film which is now relieved from the burden of the past.
We sincerely hope that the descent to hell and the humiliation is over, finally we can switch off the light in the projection hall, and we can see what it was all about after all.
Because what is made ready from this shooting of half an hour or so is something that makes all of us burst with pride!

Budapest, February 6, 2006.

Béla Tarr
director

Gábor Téni
producer

FEBRUARY 17th, 2006

There is renewed hope for the European co-production by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, The Man From London (L’homme de Londres), the shoot for which was abruptly and brutally interrupted after just nine days in February 2004, following the death of French producer Humbert Balsan (see news).

Inspired by Georges Simenon’s novel, French involvement in the project in now in the hands of Paul Saadoun (13 Production) while co-production partnerships are still in place with Hungary’s T.T. Filmmuhely and Germany’s Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion and CMW Film Company. However, UK company Wind Fish Motion Pictures has pulled out.

With an advance on receipts of €380,000 from the National Film Centre (CNC), €400,000 from Eurimages and support from Arte, the film’s initial budget of €5.29m has been cut back. Shooting begins in Hungary next month, with some filming in Corsica planned for September 2006. UK actress Tilda Swinton is still in the cast, which also includes Miroslav Krobot from the Czech Republic and Hungarian actors Janos Derzsi and Istvan Lenart.

In an open letter, Béla Tarr and Hungarian co-producer Gábor Téni detailed their travails on the project, highlighting the continued support shown by Eurimages, Arte, the CNC, the German co-producers, the MMKA (Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation) and the Hungarian Cultural Minister. The main stumbling block was the fact that Balsan’s company Ognon Pictures was on the verge of bankruptcy, with approximately €13m in debt, and had handed over the rights to The Man From London to French credit agency Coficiné. The legal mess had a happy ending, due mostly to the arrival on the scene of Saadoun, who produced Béla Tarr’s last film, Werckmeister Harmonies, in 2000. Saadoun told Cineuropa, "We had stayed in contact and I didn’t want this film to sit on the shelf because it is such a beautiful screenplay. In conjunction with Coficiné and Ognon, we sorted out the rights problem and the financial issues." Béla Tarr hopes that "the descent into Hell and the humiliation are finally over" so that The Man From London can finally get back on track.

FEBRUARY 21st, 2006

After printing Screen Daily's report on Cannes, one inquistive Cannes-watcher posted a question about the state of Hungarian master Bela Tarr's latest film "The Man from London" and whether it might be ready for the Croisette. Those familiar with the director's work know that a year ago the project looked as if it might be abandoned, after the film's French producer Humbert Balsan unexpectedly comitted suicide. The international FIPRESCI jury published a plea for help for the project, writing "Béla Tarr tries under devastating and humiliating conditions and by now without any protection to shoot his new film in Corsica without a producer."

But good news has arrived. Last week, Screen Daily reported in a story available at this Hungarian news site that "The Man from London" is back on track and will begin shooting in March, featuring an international cast, including Tilda Swinton, Czech actor Miroslav Krobot, British actress Leah Williams and Hungarian stars Janos Derzsi and Istvan Lenart. Based on the Georges Simenon novel, the film is now targeting a Cannes 2007 launch. For further update, I emailed German filmmaker and Tarr devotee Fred Kelemen, the director of photography on "The Man from London" and he confirmed the news: "I can infom you that we will not finish the shooting of the mentioned film before the end of the year," he said.

May 23rd

Tarr’s latest effort is a rendering of French crime writer Georges Simenon’s novel “The Man From London”. The screenplay was written by Tarr and his long-time collaborator László Krasznahorkai, one of Hungary’s greatest living authors.

Shooting of the film came to a halt in March 2005, after the suicide of its French producer Humbert Balsan, whose production company Ognon was collapsing under debt. But the states of Hungary and France intervened, allowing shooting to continue under producer Paul Saadoun’s company 13 Production, backed with financing from Coficiné Bank. Saadoun also produced Tarr’s previous film “Werckmeister Harmonies”.

In addition to the increased financing from the Hungarian state and public television broadcaster, the film received additional funding from several French sources: ARTE, the French and German cultural broadcaster, provided EUR 800,000, commercial broadcaster Canal Plus put up EUR 300,000 and the French National Film Centre (CNC) provided EUR 400,000.

CNC’s Francois Hurard noted that the centre considered it important to raise the French contribution in line with the increase in Hungarian support for the film in order to “rescue” a work of art. The additional contributions add up to EUR 3.5 million, which, together with earlier financing, give the film a production budget of EUR 5.5 million

Tarr recently completed an eight-day shoot in Hungary and will soon start filming in Croatia. In October, the filming will move to Corsica, and a final 27-day shoot will take place in France in November. One hour and ten minutes of the two-hour film have been shot so far.

Tarr expressed his delight that, in spite of the challenges faced when making the film, none of the actors or crew had left, and filming would finish with the same group of people with which it started. He thanked those that helped make the film and its sponsors for their solidarity as well as for not doubting the film would be completed.

Like Tarr’s earlier films, “The Man From London” is filmed in black and white. The French-language film stars the Czech actor Miroslav Krobot and the UK’s Tilda Swinton. The film’s cinematographer is Fred Kelemen, and music for the film is composed by Tarr’s long-time collaborator Mihály Vígh.

An image from the film!