December 1 (XXXI:14) Béla Tarr, THE TURIN HORSE (2011, 146 min) (The version of this handout on the website has color images and hot urls.) Jury Grand Prix, Berlin International Film Festival Directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky Written by Béla Tarr and László Krasznahorkai Produced by Martin Hageman, Juliette Lepoutre, Marie-Pierre Macia, Gábor Téni, Ruth Waldburger Music by Mihály Vig Cinematography by Fred Kelemen Film Editing by Ágnes Hranitzky János Derzsi…Ohlsdorfer Erika Bók…Ohlsdorfer's daughter Mihály Kormos…Bernhard Lajos Kovács…Bernhard Ricsi…Horse Mihály Ráday…Narrator alföldön/Journey on the Plain (1995), Sátántangó/Satan’s Tango Béla Tarr (b. July 21, 1955 in Pécs, Hungary) has directed 15 and (1994), Utolsó hajó (1990), Rock térítö (1988), written 12 films. Some of the films he has directed are A Torinói Kárhozat/Damnation (1987), Öszi almanac/Almanac of Fall ló/The Turin Horse (2009), A londoni férfi/The Man from London (1985), Eszkimó asszony fázik/Eskimo Woman Feel Cold (1984). (2007), Visions of Europe (2004, segment “Prologue"), Werckmeister harmóniák/Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Utazás Fred Kelemen (b. January 6, 1964 in Berlin, Germany) has served az alföldön/Journey on the Plain (1995), Sátántangó/Satan’s as director, cinematographer, writer, and editor, together, on six Tango (1994), City Life (1990), Utolsó hajó (1990), films, Krisana (2005), Abendland (1999), Frost (1997), Kárhozat/Damnation (1987), Öszi almanac/Almanac of Fall Verhängnis (1994), Kalyi - Zeit der Finsternis (1993) and (1985), Panelkapcsolat/The Prefab People (1982), Macbeth cinematographer on an additional 7 films including Sweets (2013), (1982/II), Szabadgyalog/The Outsider (1981), Családi The Turin Horse (2011), Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare tüzfészek/Family Nest (1979), Hotel Magnezit (1978). (2007), The Man from London (2007), Stone Time Touch (2007, Documentary), Tatau Samoa (2000, Documentary) and Journey on László Krasznahorkai (b. January 5, 1954 in Gyula, Hungary) is the Plain (1995, Short). a novelist who has written for five films including The Turin Horse (2011, screenplay), The Man from London (2007, screenplay), János Derzsi (b. April 20, 1954 in Nyírábrány, Hungary) has acted Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, novel "The Melancholy of in over 92 films and television shows, some of which are Resistance" /screenplay), Satantango (1994, novel /screenplay), Kossuthkifli (2015, TV Mini-Series, post-production), White God and Damnation (1988). (2014), The Notebook (2013), Dear Betrayed Friends (2012), Keleti pu. (2011, TV Movie), Team Building (2011), The Turin Mihály Vig (b. September 21, 1957 in Budapest, Hungary) has Horse (2011), Koccanás (2009, TV Movie), Apaföld (2009), The composed the music for 18 films, including The Long Way Home Sun Street Boys (2007), Nosedive (2007), The Hourglass (2007), (2013), Story of an Eye (2012, Short), Daymark (2012), The Turin The Man from London (2007), Vadászat angolokra (2006), Dallas Horse (2011), Die Tochte, Saját halál/Own Death (2008), A Pashamende (2005), After the Day Before (2004), Kontroll (2003), londoni férfi/The Man from London (2007), Visions of Europe The Bridgeman (2002), Temptations (2002), Smouldering (2004) (segment "Prologue"), Werckmeister Cigarette (2001), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Egy tél az Isten harmóniák/Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Utazás az háta mögött (1999), Istennél a kegyelem (1999, TV Movie), Tarr—THE TURIN HORSE-—2 Gyilkos kedv (1997), A Szórád-ház (1997, TV Mini-Series), Istálló about a failed collective farm that seemed to capture the malaise (1995, TV Movie), Utrius (1994), Satantango (1994), Nyomkeresö and decay of post-Communist Eastern Europe. (1993), Hoppá (1993), Isten hátrafelé megy (1991), Könnyü vér Bela Tarr has been employed by MAFILM Studios, (1990), Szürkület (1990), Laurin (1989), Az új földesúr (1989), Hungary’s primary film studio, since 1981. Between films, he Románc (1989, TV Movie), A másik ember (1988), Laura (1987), serves as a visiting professor at the Film Academy in Berlin, Az elvarázsolt dollár (1986), Almanac of Fall (1984), Forbidden Germany, and he has been a member of the European Film Relations (1983), Macbeth (1982, TV Movie), Narcissus and Academy since 1996. Psyche (1980), Circus maximus (1980), A luxusvilla titka (1979, TV Movie), Ajándék ez a nap (1979), Allegro barbaro (1979), Why I Make Films [Bela Tarr, during preproduction for Hungarian Rhapsody (1979) and Rosszemberek (1979). Damnation, 1987] Right at the center of a seemingly incomprehensible world, at the age of 32, the question “why do I make films” seems unanswerable. I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t make films if people don’t let me. If I don’t receive trust and funding I feel like I don’t exist. The last one-and-a-half to two years of my life went by in such a state of apparent futility—I was given no opportunities to realize my plans through the official channels. Two courses of action were left open to me: to gradually suffocate or search for some alternative. Then followed a terrible year of begging for money and trying to discover whether it’s even possible to make a different type of film in Hungary, one that doesn’t depend on the official and traditional sources of funding. And once the money’s finally all there and I’ve managed to create some small opportunity, kidding myself that I’m “independent,” that’s when it hits me that there’s no such thing as independence or freedom, only money and politics. You can never escape anything. Those who give you money also threaten you. All BÉLA TARR from Facets Cine-Notes. “Bela Tarr: A Cinema that remains is obligation. The film has to be made. Then you of Patience.” 2006. desperately clutch onto the camera, as if it were the last custodian Brief Biography of the truth that you had supposed existed. But what to film if Known for reinvigorating the tradition of contemplative everything is a lie? All I can be is an apologist for lies, treachery cinema, Bela Tarr belongs to that group of young Hungarian and dishonorableness. directors who came to prominence in the 1990s through their dour, But in that case. why make films? enigmatic, and highly stylized films. This also leads to internal conflicts, as my self-confidence Tarr was born in Pecs, Hungary in 1955. As a teenager, he wanes, the crew start to leave because the venue appears uncertain worked as an unskilled laborer in a shipyard and as a janitor, but he and I cant pay them enough. And I am left with a general feeling of was also serious about film, and he began directing amateur anxiety. So I flee from this form of desperation into another—the movies at age 16. His movies eventually attracted the attention of film. the Bela Belazs Studio for young filmmakers, a government- Probably, I make films in order to tempt fate, to supported organization that provided professional equipment and simultaneously be the most humiliated and, if only for a few funding for budding directors. The studio funded Tarr’s first moments, the freest person in the world. Because I despise stories, feature, Family Nest (Csaladi Tuzfeszek). as they mislead people into believing that something has happened. In 1977, Tarr entered the Academy of Theatre and Film In fact, nothing really happens as we flee from one condition to Art in Budapest. While a student, he directed his second film, The another. Because today there are only states of being—all stories Outsider, which was shot in the semi-documentary style that have become obsolete and cliched, and have resolved themselves. characterized the “Budapest School.” Like most films from this All that remains is time. That’s probably the only thing that’s still movement, The Outsider captured the problems and daily lives of genuine—time itself: the years, days, hours minutes and seconds. ordinary Hungarians in the hopes of improving conditions. Tarr And film time has also ceased to exist, since the film itself has graduated in 1981. ceased to exist. Luckily there is no authentic form or current His style began to change in 1982 with a version of fashion. Some kind of massive introversion, a searching of our Macbeth that he directed for Hungarian television. With this film. own souls can help ease the situation. Tarr not only moved away from the realistic style of semi- Or kill us. documentary but also from his use of raw close-ups. Instead, he We could die of not being able to make films, or we could exhibited a preference for long shots in long takes, which pushed die from making films. his work closer toward abstraction. Just over an hour, Macbeth But there’s no escape. consisted of only two shots. Because films are our only means of authenticating our Often compared to Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei lives. Eventually nothing remains of us except our films—strips of Tarkovsky, Tarr pursued a distanced, detached style in the films celluloid on which our shadows wander in search of truth and that followed Macbeth. In 1994, he garnered international attention humanity until the end of time. with Satan’s Tango (Satantango), a seven-and-a-half-hour film I really don’t know why I make films. Tarr—THE TURIN HORSE-—3 Perhaps to survive, because I’d still like to live, at least You have to understand that it doesn’t matter if I’m working with a just a little longer…. big film star, or someone from the next factory. I’m looking for their personality, how they react… And when I choose them, I’m searching for how they are, like real human beings. When I get into real human situations in a scene, I want them to react how they would in their lives. They have to be natural, they have to be dancers.