Satantangoand Bela Tarr
Satantango
"WHO/WHAT is the "Master"? by Rob Tregenza
"Laszlo Krasnahorkai is today one of the most vital and original novelists in Eastern Europe. His writings have been translated from Hungarian into German but, doomed at this juncture, not to be made available in English.
His rainy vision of Hungary and Eastern Europe is unique, powerful and so totally informs and defines the mood and vision of the last two films by Mr. Tarr, that I feel it does an injustice to both artists not to list them here jointly as the "authors" of DAMNATION and SATANTANGO. Why?
Many in the West, do not understand the historic importance of "studio" processes in the funding and creation of all Hungarian feature films. The term "studio" is used here both in the sense of the European fine arts traditions, where artists work together collectively to create a work, (under the control of a "master") and to reflect the fact that the film/television studio system was the only means (since 1914) by which feature films could be created in Hungary. This is now changing due to new technology, political freedom and money (or lack there of) from outside European co-production deals.
That historic situation confronts the present world wide dominance of the French theory of the "auteur" as the director (master?) of a film. The auteur theory diminishes the significance of the writer, cameraperson, editor or the producer in any "studio" process, if he or she does not also function as "the director". Under this system of classification a film-event like SATANTANGO, outside of Hungary, simply becomes a film by Bela Tarr and not by a studio in either original sense of the word.
The fourth set of titles on SATANTANGO, after the actors but before the main title, marks it as "a film by Krasnahorkai, Agnes Hranitzky, and Tarr." (Ms. Hranitzky is Mr Tarr's editor and wife.) On DAMNATION it is a film by Krasznahorkai, Gabor Medvigy, Gyula Pauer, Mihaly Vig, Agnes Hranitzky, and Tarr.
International film festivals, long the self appointed aesthetic judge and jury of the artistic talent/fate of "directors", have also anointed this auteur theory as the dominant mode for the classification of feature film. Hence, both of these films appear in the West as films by Bela Tarr and never by a studio.
Public relations, marketing and distribution (even here at Cinema Parallel) are also guilty of the same for commercial reasons.
Nevertheless, I here suggest, we return to a more proper political and historic perspective, and because we are talking here about a product of a studio system ask simply , "Who is the reel "master" of this well acknowledged masterpiece?".
Time will tell. Possibly, in this case, the master function was served by either, neither, or by both? I know both Tarr and Krasnahorkai quite well. For me, the key is which one is the true Irimias?
Rob Tregenza, Washington DC., 1999
Mr. Krasnahorkai has also written the script for THE WERKMEISTER HARMONIES which is based on his 1989 novel
THE MELANCHOLY OF RESISTANCE. This film began production on Feb. 9, 1998 in Budapest co-directed by Mr. Tarr and his wife and editor Agnes Hranitzky. The music was again composed by Mihaly Vig. After numerous delays, it is still in production in winter of 1999.
damnation 
THE FILMS OF BELA TARR
The first major North American retrospective of Mr. Tarr's individual and collective work was at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1995.
Mr. Piers Handling, the director of the festival and programmer of the Bela Tarr "Spotlight" stated in his introduction:
"Tarr is slowly emerging as one of the most distinctive talents in the world, although it has taken him six films in a career that began over twenty years ago, to reach this point. And he is still a young man, and this year marks his 40th birthday."
"Tarr started to make films in his teens, and soon came into contact with and joined the Bela Balazs Studio. Established in the mid-sixties, this studio has been extremely important in the development of Hungarian cinema and, in particular, the avant-guard."
"Tarr's recent work is witness to a real growth as an artist. His canvas has expanded, his world view has become more refined (more dystopian and misanthropic!), and his control of the medium has grown more highly assured. "
According to Mr. Jonathan Rosenbaum, Tarr's early films have more to do with an aesthetic informed by the work of John Cassavettes and New York "underground" filmmakers of the 1960s than the sort of formal visual elements of DAMNATION and SATANTANGO.
The early films of Bela Tarr are:
FAMILY NEST 1979
THE OUTSIDER 1981
The PREFAB PEOPLE 1982
ALMANAC OF FALL 1984
The films by Laszlo Krasnahorkai and Bela Tarr?
DAMNATION 1987
SATANTANGO 1994
"DAMNATION and SATANTANGO will be viewed as central works of eastern European cinema in the decades to come. They sit astride a momentous event in history, the dissolution of the communist world, and "document" this moment in a way that only great art can. Both films capture the ennui, despair and world weariness of a culture that finds itself directionless, lost, and adrift in the universe. The films are reminiscent of Fellini's La dolce vita and Antonioni's L'avventura in the manner in which they mirror their times. For anyone who wants to "visit" the state of mind of present eastern Europe (be it Poland, the Chech Republic, Russia, the plethora of new republics, or of course Hungary) these films are like X-rays, exposing a culture with insight, humanity and courage." Piers Handling, 1995