Werckmeister Harmonies
| Werckmeister Harmonies | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
Béla Tarr Ágnes Hranitzky |
| Produced by | Béla Tarr |
| Screenplay by |
László Krasznahorkai Béla Tarr |
| Based on |
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai |
| Starring |
Lars Rudolph Peter Fitz Hanna Schygulla |
| Music by | Mihály Vig |
| Cinematography | Patrick de Ranter |
| Edited by | Ágnes Hranitzky |
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Release date
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Running time
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145 minutes |
| Country | Hungary |
| Language | Hungarian |
Werckmeister Harmonies (pronounced [verkˈmaɪ̯stɐ]; Hungarian: Werckmeister harmóniák) is a 2000 Hungarian Drama Mystery film directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, based on the 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai. Shot in black-and-white and composed of thirty-nine languidly paced shots, the film shows János and his older friend György during the Soviet occupation of Hungary at the end of the Second World War. It also shows their journey among helpless citizens as a dark circus comes to town casting an eclipse over their lives.
The title refers to the baroque musical theorist Andreas Werckmeister. György Eszter, a major character in the film, gives a monologue propounding a theory that Werckmeister's harmonic principles are responsible for aesthetic and philosophical problems in all music since, and need to be undone by a new theory of tuning and harmony.
Werckmeister Harmonies opened to wide acclaim from film critics, and is often listed among the major cinematic works of the 21st century.
It is set in an anonymous, desolate, isolated small town in Hungary during Soviet times.
The film starts with János Valuska conducting a poem and dance with drunken bar patrons. The dance is of the total eclipse of the sun, which disturbs, then silences the animals. It finishes with the grand return of the warm sunlight.
János' older friend György is a composer, and therefore one of the intelligentsia. György observes the imperfection and compromise of the musical scale (as defined by Andreas Werckmeister a historical theorist). György proposes changes to the scale to make it more harmonious.
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