![Damnation ( Kárhozat ) [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UyqdxU5pL.jpg)
France released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: Hungarian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), English ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), German ( Subtitles ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr began his career making social realist domestic dramas, similar to the work of John Cassavettes. The feature before Damnation, Almanac of Fall, showed Tarr moving toward a more visually stylized form of filmmaking. With Damnation, the first of his collaborations with novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Tarr adopts a formally rigorous style, featuring long takes and slow tracking shots of the bleak landscape that surrounds the characters. Shot in black-and-white, Damnation tells the story of Karrer (Miklos B. Szekely), a depressed man in love with a married woman (Vali Kerekes) who sings at the local bar, Titanik. The singer has broken off their affair, despite her profession of love for him. She wants to improve her life. She dreams of becoming famous, but she herself embodies all of Karrer's hopes and dreams. Karrer is offered smuggling work by Willarsky (Gyula Pauer), the bartender at Titanik. Despite his lack of other prospects, Karrer tries to haggle with Willarsky over his take. Karrer eventually decides to offer the job to the singer's husband, Sebastyen (Gyorgy Cserhalmi), who has fallen on hard times. This gets the husband out of the way for a while, but things don't go as Karrer plans with the singer. There's a big, drunken dance, which everyone in town attends (though one demented soul prefers to dance maniacally in the rain outside). Afterwards, one betrayal falls upon another, leaving Karrer in despair, alienated from all of humanity. This film laid the groundwork for Tarr's next collaboration with Krasznahorkai, Satantango, a seven-hour film which they spent years developing, and ...Damnation ( Kárhozat )
K**N
Tarr made only good films
Very good story
M**I
If you consider films as art (not as yet another entertaining means) this is for you
This director is not the only one, but one of the very few true artists who have a clear notion of their art.And, as all real artists, he too cannot be pigeon-holed even by force or mutilation through the taxonomies which help shallow people to choose the kind of entertaining they fancy on the whim of the moment.If you have brains and soul, you will start to admire and love this director.
L**T
Great filmic masterpiece by great director.
I think this may be the finest film I have ever seen overall, yet Fellini's 8 1/2 competes for this title. It is silly really as both are quite superb and you cannot compare the two or the other twenty or so which might vie in my subjective opinion. I have never seen a film like this. It is slow and ponders over scenes but never once bored me. I have seen it four times so far and no doubt I will view it many times more. Like the Fellini, it is one of those films that oblige you to do so. It is also an insight into the Hungarian way of life. I have met many Hungarians and they do have this element as pictured in Bela Tarr's films. I like Hungarians (generally) by the way.
D**T
The Melancholy of film making.
Bela Tarr is a visionary film maker. I can think on no other who is as unafraid of his audience or material: he has no fear of challenging the viewer and as a result, his films have an unhurried rhythm that allows the audience to absorb atmosphere, often to claustrophobic effect.Werkmeister Harmonies is based on the central section of László Krasznahorkai's novel "The Melancholy Of Resistance". It takes place in a small Magyar town that is visited in the night by a mysterious "Prince" and his travelling pantechnicon which contains a huge stuffed whale. Mysterious strangers arrive and the atmosphere turns violent...Tarr immerses the viewer in his unique vision. The succession of daringly long takes brings the audience closer to the people and place: a four minute shot of people walking in silence becomes unbearably tense; a two minute shot of a man running along a railway track brings desperation.This disc comes with the bonus of Tarr's earlier "Damnation" on a separate disc.
D**E
An interesting film from Hungary with wonderful black and white photography focusing on a small Hungarian ...
An interesting film from Hungary with wonderful black and white photography focusing on a small Hungarian town and the relationships therein. It is breathtakingly slow but manages to maintain the interest throughout the period. Worth purchasing and watching if only to escape from the general mind-bending dross of Western cinema.
G**A
One more masterpiece from Bela Tarr
This is best of all his movies, of course, after Satantango. Simple story about human desire, desparation and advance determinated destiny of pure Balcan's loosers. Excellent photography, acting, set and coreography. The one who likes Fassbinder heroes, their destiny and passion and Tarkovsky's technical treatment of art movie (slow camera movement, long takes, a lot of water and dogs) will enjoy. Everydays rains is eroding souls and facade of small hungarian town buildings. Extraordinary last scene. There is no so much hope in Tarr's world. Or ours.
A**R
An underrated director
An underrated director, fantastic framing of shots
G**D
As described
The price and quick delivery
A**R
Turning Point
A turning point, in terms of the Director's approach to form, the best transfer I have seen.
D**N
Un soleil noir au firmament du cinéma
Rarement film aura atteint une telle intensité dans la mélancolie et le désespoir. Un monde balayé par les pluies, où errent dans la boue des bandes de chiens telles des âmes jamais en repos. Ainsi vont et viennent les personnages de ce drame dans une ronde absurde, hantés par leur échec et la certitude qu'ils ne sortiront pas du bourbier de leur vie. Seule une femme entretient l'idée minuscule d'une évasion, et autour de cette femme, chanteuse dans une boite minable, les hommes tournent comme des papillons effarés. Sa voix rauque résonnera longtemps en vous. C'est une film unique. Béla Tarr est un génie. Après son dernier film "Le cheval de Turin" il a déclaré qu'il ne tournerait plus, qu'il avait tout dit.je souhaite ardemment qu'il change d'avis.
J**E
DAMNATION - A WORK OF ART
This film is mesmerizing - it is art with a capital 'A,' so commented Susan Sontag, the late writer, philosopher, and critic. This is an existential film - filled with an overwhelming sense of dread and nothingness. The director, Bela Tarr, has captured on film one of the most poetic sequences in all of cinema - the TANIKA BAR sequence: the camera slowly pans the exterior of the Tanika Bar from the POV of the main character, a widower, in love with the married singer inside the bar. The camera once more slowly and lovingly frames the customers seated inside the bar - they are almost statutes - reminiscent of the characters in the classic French film, LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. The singer's voice is so soft it is almost inaudible, her lament of melancholy and loss too painful to hear; her voice floats and hovers over the crowd like a fine mist. It is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard - following is a sampling of the lyrics which, I feel, convey the spirit of the film: It's finished... And, there won't be another... It won't be good... Ever again... It's been over long ago... It's good to know I won't be here long... It won't be good again... Ever again...
O**A
Five Stars
I love Bela Tarr's work.Another great film.
C**N
bonne année
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