Béla Tarr Trilogy at BAM

Arguably the most visionary filmmaker working in Eastern Europe today, Béla Tarr has earned an international reputation as a singular talent in the mold of cinematic giants like Tarkovsky and Antonioni. His beautiful black and white images leisurely follow their subjects Tarr's moving camera does not forcefully extract the intricacies of life, but reveals it through patient observation. These three films, all based on work by novelist László Krasznahorkai, comprise an unofficial trilogy that is challenging, rewarding, and intensely cinematic. All films directed by Béla Tarr and in Hungarian with English subtitles.

"Tarr is conceivably the most important Eastern European filmmaker currently at work." -Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Damnation (Kárhozat) (1988) 116min
Fri, Feb 23 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
A broken man, haunted by the memory of his wife's suicide, begins an affair with a married night club singer. Seeking to get closer to her, the man plots to separate her from her thuggish (though devoted) husband by involving him in a smuggling scheme fraught with peril. A description of this serpentine film noir can't begin to capture the depth Tarr's forbidding landscapes and seductive tracking shots elicit from his characters and their intense relationships.

"A majestic study of erotic betrayal in an industrial wasteland." -The Village Voice

Sátántangó (1994) 450min with two intermissions Sat, Feb 24 at 3pm Tarr's greatest triumph is this seven and a half hour epic-his definitive statement on the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Considered one of the most important films of the 1990s, Sátántangó follows the individuals of a destitute farm collective, as well as the con man who arrives to swindle them, in twelve sections inspired by the moves of the tango-six steps forward, six steps back.

"A dark, funny, apocalyptic allegory of the Hungarian psyche that stimulates, irritates, soothes and startles with blinding strokes of genius in equal turn...the film demands to be seen on the big screen to work its mesmeric magic."-Variety

Werckmeister Harmonies (Werckmeister Harmóniák) (2000) (145min) Sun, Feb 25 at 3, 6, 9pm With Hanna Schygulla, Lars Rudolph Tarr's most recent feature begins as the resident holy fool of a small Hungarian town startles the patrons of a local pub when he uses them to demonstrate a solar eclipse. A circus arrives, bringing the spectacle of a stuffed whale carcass and a much anticipated figure called "the Prince." When this mysterious man fails to appear, the town bursts into revolt. These scenes, shot in takes as long as 15 minutes, set the stage for a profound allegory, powered by hypnotic black and white cinematography and a transcendent score.

"Weird, wonderful, witty and unsettling." -Time Out London

Tickets: BAM.org / 718.777.FILM (order by name of movie) BAM Rose Cinemas, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY