MAN FROM LONDON:
With a movie like this, adjectives like hypnotic and/or mesmeric can come to be mere euphemisms for boring and tedious.
The actors Béla Tarr employs here are some of the best in the world and he also obviously picks them for their physiognomy – which looks at its best in monochrome. His close-ups reveal character as no other director can yet, since the length of this film cannot be supported by its meagre content, one can never escape the feeling of doing little more than watch paint dry.
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES:
Long, adroit takes show a culture in decline as scared people wait lethargically for a sign of deliverance they have not earned. The resultant civil disorder here in a nowhere land of the imagination where past harmonies are eventually seen as present discordances.
The mob mentality of those united by hate and fear is well shown as they desperately seek scapegoats - among the weak - for the unhappiness their apathy has led them to. Surreal, macabre and sinisterly black & white imagery gives the piece a slow moving beauty.
DAMNATION:
Treads a fine line between hypnotic beauty and sleep induction. The lives in stasis here prove the worst hell comes from having nothing to do and from trying to live life through others. Without ethics, the people shown here become little more than dogs. A true filmmaker who can tell stories visually without needless dialogue.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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