Satantango (1994)

The dance with the devil based on novelist László Krasznahorkai's novel about the aftermath of the fall of communism for sure has to rank very high up when it gets to unconventional motion pictures. Filmed in beautiful black and white by Hungarian director Béla Tarr in the early Nineties, the movie consists of twelve parts and lasts seven and a half hours with single tracking shots up to ten minutes, often with very little or only repetitive action on screen. And it rains and rains and rains. Make no mistake: Despite its length Satantango is not an epic narration, but rather achieves long lasting impressions by pointing the camera on banalities inspired by the bleakness of the scenery, perfectly enhanced by the director's choices what to show and how to show it in order to induce a trance-like reaction in the viewer. And while doing so Satantango mesmerizes, shocks, devastates, enthralls.

The time line is a bit unclear and episodes overlap or could have happened the same way at another time. Yet there is a main thread of story about a con-man in the messiah's disguise, a seemingly eternally lasting dance in the very middle, and an essential episode about a little girl representing the core of the film - a symbol of the disillusionment and victim of betrayal, desperately searching for ways to exert some power herself in her forlorn reality. Not that much is happening in Satantango, and some things remain vague, but reality is also transcended at key points adding to the allegorical impact. The aesthetics of the experience and its ultimate conclusion will remain with those who are open for it.

Fmovies: There really is no way to evaluate this film without assessing it as a 7 1/2 hour death trudge. The runtime is the purpose of the film and Bela Tarr knows it. There really is no way to spoil this film because it barely has a plot and does its best to divert itself from it once it gets going. Even if you know the sort of repetitious psychological torture you're about to subject yourself to you still have to endure it.

Although I certainly took it as a tantric cinematic experience, I won't say that I enjoyed it nor that I particularly expected to enjoy it. So far as I know nobody has ever been forced to sit through this film Clockwork Orange style. As a voluntary experience the film is just a method for the audience to confront its own masochism and the dreariness of its existence.

That said, I think that in the 7 hours I spent watching it (about 25 minutes were lost due to it being a Pal conversion and running imperceptibly faster than usual) maybe 2 1/2 hours were brilliant. Of course, I can't assess whether those moments of brilliance coming later on in the film were actually brilliant or of I had just begun to submit to the film the way interrogation subjects start to crack after sleep deprivation.

The film has some very strong suits, namely the cinematography and setting. There were some moments where I laughed more than I had ever laughed in a film but I think that might have just been from cracking under pressure. I did think the last shot was perfect, although it would have been better without the final voice over.

Also, the one game that I played throughout the film that kept me going was "Which Andrei Tarkovsky film does this most resemble?" While I do think that Bela Tarr has certainly championed his own form of patent miserablism, I did notice about eight shots (amounting to about an hour of the film if not more) that looked entirely cribbed from Tarkovsky's repertoire. Maybe someday I'll edit out the Tarkovsky film located within this film and see if I can pass it off on anyone unfamiliar with Tarr.

That said, I'm... happy(???) that I sat through the whole thing, if only because afterward I got to go for a nice long bike ride and enjoy the fact that the world is in color and I don't live in a post communist society. Maybe that's how Albert Hoffmann felt.

I will say that I was disappointed in the film. Although that's kind of like being disappointed with the melody in a John Cage piece. I really loved Werckmeister Harmonies but I despised Damnation. This one falls pretty evenly between the two, it just happens to fall from space, burn up on re-entry and take seven hours to hit the ground.

In the end the audience only has the same thing to hold on to as the characters living in these miserable conditions; that they endured.

If there's any proof of god, it's "Satantango", Tarr's impetuous yet melancholic, beautiful and sublime, unforgettable and dark, dark, dark masterpiece which is one of cinema's greatest treasures -- rich with darkness and wonder. At 7 hours long, it is as if it were life itself, and it really is, as everything -- tone, pace, tempo -- is in real time; essentially, it feels, and is, a tango. Tarr, again, demonstrates his mastery through the long take, as it beautifully portrays its subject and feelings of them. It's just such a film one can not even describe in words; it's simple art. This magnus opum of cinema has changed the value of that very term to me. Not many films can do that. I will never forget this film until the day I die, for "Satantango" should be a required viewing -- for everyone.

Satantango fmovies. My name is George Zoes and I am the assistant director of Theo Angelopoulos, the famous director from Greece. I just finished watching the movie and I am in state of cinematic nirvana. I only thought Theo Angelopoulos had the secans shots but I was mistaken.

Bela Tar knows what he is doing. For the people who are addicted to post modern cinema this movie would be a nervous breakdown. But for the people who love the power of images, who keep their minds open, who investigate the same art of cinema, its a miracle this film exists.

The time games that Bela Tar plays with the shots from a different angle are unique and the atmosphere that he creates conviced me that this is a parrarel universe rather than a cinema story. Its a purgative cinema that personally gave me trust to make my own feature film. The visual story seems greater than the written one but its not. I have the feeling that this form is the most suitable for this content. Its like the flesh and the blood, you cant distinguish them.

Thank you Bela Tar and to your screenwriter.

I am ready to leave Theo to work with you.

I saw SATANTANGO about ten years ago. At that time, I found it impressive, but quite an ordeal to sit through. But then, years later, I realized I kept thinking back to the images and rhythms of this film. It grows. I also saw other very long movies with very long takes, like TAIGA by Ulrike Ottinger (8 hours) and FROST by Tarr's student Fred Kelemen (4 hours); they didn't work. SATANTANGO stayed with me, like two other films by Tarr, DAMNATION and WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES. Today I consider it as one of the greatest movie experiences I ever had. I do not know how Tarr pulls this off; his most effective takes often seem simple and straightforward. It must be magic. By the way, Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT uses similar techniques at times (long shots of people walking), and Van Sant acknowledged Tarr's influence.

This is one of the greatest movies I've seen, as the film is not boring and tiring during more than seven hours. The beautiful long shots about this deserted country-side and it's people are so rich, that they crucially contribute to the understanding of the story. When we see somebody walking for ten minutes in the forest we have the possibility to know all his/her life. In order to understand the plot it's not enough to listen to dialogues and pay attention to the classical narrative elements. You have to contemplate and study every image, the gestures, the cloth, the environment. The long shots allow also us also to include in the film's perception our own experiences of the world. We understand the events based on our own experiences: we have the time to remember what is it like walking in mud, touching a cat, etc. If you let yourself taught by director Béla Tarr, your perception will change in 1 or 2 hours, and you will be able to feel and understand images much more deeper than before. Don't miss it!