The Guild Cinema is participating in the downer of a global film festival, Bleak Week, with grim movies that are probably best viewed in pairs, lest the dark clouds of the soul overcome you.
Bleak Week features some legendary titles -- about 300 of them, according to the AP -- from which independent cinemas can cherry-pick for screening during the coming week. We were there at the Guild to kick it off with a re-viewing of "Werckmeister Harmonies," the Bela Tarr epic from 2000. From its opening 11-minute single-shot scene -- and using just 39 leisurely paced shots across 140 minutes -- Tarr (who died earlier this year) and co-director Agnes Hranitsky examine the irrational actions of ignorant towns-folk who don't take kindly to a circus that is brought to town.
"Werckmeister Harmonies" hits a little different two decades later -- now that we are living in a world of destructive know-nothings dismantling civil society. Lars Rudolph, as the sad-sack hero Janos, who sees the arrival of a whale exhibit as a wondrous example of God's work. The fluid camerawork results in some gorgeous revelations as scenes unfold glacially. It's a wonder of visual choreography. There is definitely a pall cast over this black-and-white Hungarian landscape, but the glimmers of humanity still peek through. If you want truly bleak, check out Tarr's "The Turin Horse."
Other titles at the Guild include one of our favorites, Werner Herzog's '70s romp "Stroszek," plus the 7-plus-hour "Satantango" (considered Tarr's masterpiece) and the "shocking" "Christiane F."
BONUS TRACK
From a key scene, "Valuska" by Vig Mihaly:
And another from Mihaly, "Kesz Az Egesz (It's All Done)":
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