In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I wasn't Bela Tarr's biggest fan after viewing The Turin Horse. A film which gathered rave reviews from the art-house crowd, about two of the most boring characters in the universe going about their boring daily business for a very boring week indeed. It made my life look like a thrill a minute! Although The Turin Horse was beautifully shot and magnificently directed, it had absolutely nothing in the way of characters or plot, which in my opinion are two of the most important things to engage an audience. However, I was willing to give Bela another chance. Werckmeister Harmonies was gaining some unbelievable reviews. People were saying that it changed their lives, it moved them to tears and that it was one of the most perfect films they'd ever seen. I put away my Turin Horse prejudices and was actually really looking forward to seeing it! Unfortunately, what I got was more of the same thing.Read any rave review for Werckmeister Harmonies and you won't see anyone commenting on the narrative or plot, they'll instead be commenting on the imagery and score, both of which are admittedly fabulous. I was drawn in from the opening 15 minutes which showed off some incredible camera-work with a 10 minute cut-free sequence explaining the universe with various German drunks. It must've been painstakingly rehearsed and taken an unholy amount of takes with the camera and actors moving around with great precision. I couldn't help but really appreciate this stark opening. And then we had the near-perfect shot of Janos walking down the dark street with a beautifully haunting score playing over it. I was swept in, buckled in and ready for the ride!However, just like The Turin Horse things quickly began to get tedious. The main problem is the characters. They're not exactly infused with life are they? The only thing interesting about the protagonist is his amusing name, Janos. None of the characters have any personality and they don't develop which makes it very difficult to engage with the story. I think it must be a Hungarian thing though, because every Hungarian film I've seen has featured stupidly boring characters. Hungary definitely isn't a place I'd want to visit or make a film about.The other big problem with Werckmeister is that it's quite simply, very boring. I love a long take as much as the next fat person but most of these long takes feel long for the sake of it. I don't need to see people walking for 5 minutes. You may say that it creates atmosphere and if you'd be right, but I'm not particularly keen on an atmosphere of boredom. Werckmeister Harmonies has barely enough plot to fill an 80 minute film, yet Bela decides to stretch it out to two and a half hours. Thank god he was never approached to adapt The Lord of the Rings!Much of the narrative is meandering around very dull characters. At one point Janos' aunty comes with her knickers in a twist about her ex-husband. The whole sequence is very dull and uninteresting, yet it takes up about 40 minutes of the film and adds nothing. At lot of people point towards a political allegory, which personally doesn't interest me at all, however Bela has even said in interviews that he had no political allegory in mind and was just shooting a story about a man meeting a whale. There could've been an interesting story if the most interesting characters weren't skimmed over. The Prince for example seemed like a fascinating fellow, but only his shadow is shown once! Obviously Bela didn't want to give his viewers a heart attack with too much excitement.Werckmeister Harmonies isn't all bad though. Just like The Turin Horse it is beautifully made, with some shots being nothing short of stunning. I must admit that the hospital sequence was also brilliant, even if the reasons behind the characters doing it are a little bemusing. The two scores that feature in the film are also incredible and actually quite moving. I'm not one of these people who cry at Mozart or anything, but I did find the music in this very powerful and it elevated some scenes (especially the hospital scene) wonderfully. For some strange reason I was almost moved to tears at the final scene! Now, I don't know if that was because I was so happy that my ordeal was over, or if the music was so haunting.I don't judge anyone for liking this film. It is undeniably beautiful to look at and directed with mesmerising precision and sometimes this is enough for people! Some of my favourite films put atmosphere first and characters/plot second such as: Eraserhead and more recently, Under the Skin. However, these films are interesting enough to engage me. Nothing about Werckmeister Harmonies interested me so I was never engaged or felt involved with what I was watching. I watched it in complete darkness and on a proper screen too to try and soak up the atmosphere, but I just couldn't feel it. Werckmeister Harmonies disappointed me massively and I've decided to give up on Bela Tarr. I almost fall asleep just thinking about his seven hour magnum-opus, Satantango! Read more strange reviews at: www.asdaman.wordpress.com

This is a different kind of film. Some say that it is more like Tarkovsky in that the plot is not the driving force of the film, which is correct. Though, I would rather watch Stalker (I rated it 10/10) or The Mirror (rated it 10/10) any day over this black and white film.I don't know why make a black and white film in the year 2000? There is no artistic value in depriving a visual media such as film from color. In the same way that painting is generally not done in black and white, film shouldn't be generally done in black and white: color improves the expressiveness. I liked Tarkovsky's employment of black and white and color in different sections of the film, but make a film of over 2 hours of black and white in the year 2000? Please, artistic pretension doesn't equal artistic achievement.Another problem I had with the film were the slightly overlong takes of 3-4 minutes. I like slower paced films, such as Ozu's, but this is simply too much for me.Overall, the film was rewarding but costly and thus represents a work of serious art that deserves respect but I didn't find is the greatest film ever made.

The DVD, put out by Facets Video, is a good one, qualitatively. But, it is utterly bare bones: no commentary, no trailer, no featurettes. Its only 'extra' is a small booklet with essays on Tarr and the specific film, However, when a film is this great, it doesn't really matter. The sound quality is very good, and the film is in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. There is one BIG negative, though, and that is the white subtitling Facets employs. I've often ripped on titles from The Criterion Collection for this flaw, but this particular Facets DVD is even worse, for not only are the subtitles white, but very thin. Also, there are several scenes where the extreme white in the cinematography (excellent by Medvigy Gábor, and supposedly composed of less than 40 actual shots in the film- claims range from 33-39, which, according to legend, allowed Tarr to edit the film in less than a day) almost totally blanches out what one can read. What the hell is wrong with the folks in the subtitles department? Is it too damned much to add a bit of gold, or even some black trim about the subtitles so that they can actually be read? It's bad enough DVD companies skimp on English language dubs, but illegible subtitles? The score (piano and violin), by Míhaly Vig, who played Irimias in Satantango, is spare, but highly effective, as any scoring should be, and its likely the best in the Tarr films I've seen, adding to the reality that this film is the most emotional of the films, as well. Some critics, however, have taken issue with the film's scoring, claiming that the film argues that music is an immanently flawed vehicle to base any sort of foundation upon, thus the film's score is at odds with its artistic claim. But, this is clearly wrong, since the film does not argue that music is immanently flawed, just one of its characters does- Eszter.Another error that many critics have made is calling Werckmeister Harmonies a minimalist film. It is not. It's amazing how many critical notions in art and life are flawed simply due to the critic's inability to understand the definitions of the very terms they use. Minimalism is when a work of art is reduced to its barest minimum- i.e.- some of the Absurdist plays of a Samuel Beckett, or some scenes in George Lucas's THX 1138 or some films of Carl Theodor Dreyer, come to mind. These critics conflate mere economy with strict minimalism, but there's a world of difference. Minimalism is not just a spare setting, but that spare setting with a singular focus, a character or two, and brevity in action. Economy can have multiple characters, themes, and plot points, but be told in broad, singular strokes. This far more fits the description of a Tarr film, including this one. The film is not larded down with symbolism, but the few moments of such are ripened and potent. The scenes with the whale, never seen in its entirety, when seen by Janos, but only in the final scene, with Eszter, is a good example; for when we see what has so enraptured Janos, in the daylight, it is not nearly as mysterious nor awe inspiring as when we see only glimpses of it in shadow. To paraphrase, the elephant that the seven blind men feel, in the old parable, will always be more interesting and exciting than if they could see the real beast. Werckmeister Harmonies is not minimalist; in fact, it's the exact opposite, it's loaded with meaning, detail, and subtlety. And the elephant also hearkens back to the ending of Federico Fellini's masterful La Dolce Vita, and its ending with the discovery of a manta ray's corpse, and its all seeing eye.Despite many of the critical misreadings, Werckmeister Harmonies is a truly great film; audacious in its depiction of reality, however askew, and even bolder in its plumb of human consciousness; especially in its relationship to things greater than the self. That it does not lay out all its cards on the table for immediate perusal is not a weakness, but a strength, in that it invites rewatches. If all films offered only a quarter of what this film does, cinema would be far better for it. But, when given a rare full plate, like this, it's OK to gorge between the famines. Grace is optional.

In modern cities, we're bombarded by sounds and images all the time, creating over-stimulation. As a result, we can't feel very strongly about any one thing we see. Werckmeister Harmonies takes place in a small Hungarian town, where not much ordinarily happens. The citizens are under-stimulated, and as a result, have the sacred ability to be moved to the core by small things. Bela Tarr wants us to be able to experience this with the townsfolk, and goes through great pains to do so. The film is made up of only 39 shots, each one spanning at least several minutes. As with Satantango, they chronicle the monotony of village life: long dreary walks, manually heating up water, the unhurried conversation.While I wouldn't say I found every moment of Werckmeister Harmonies riveting (perhaps the non-city dweller may fare better), I can easily say I did myself a favor by watching it. First of all, the imagery: Bela Tarr captures some of the most enchanting and unique images you'll ever see on film. The ambitious art direction and cinematography are perfectly realized, and the skill and artistry in the single-take scenes found here is astounding.The film's simple but beautiful soundtrack works well, and Tarr combines it masterfully with his imagery, creating a lot of memorable and powerful moments.My only complaint is that Bela Tarr hasn't mastered dialog to the extent that his predecessors have. Some of the dialog-driven scenes feel a bit stale, and serve to work against the wondrous tone that he painstakingly creates. But all is forgiven when the dialog fades and he is able to focus on poetic expression through imagery. Who else can make a circling helicopter appear so organic, and so strange?Also recommended: Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice and Roy Andersson's Songs from the Second Floor.