1215 Werckmeister Harmonies

[swo17]

Werckmeister Harmonies



This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown time in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince—arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens that builds inexorably toward violence. In thirty-nine hypnotic long takes engraved in ghostly black and white, auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky conjure an apocalyptic vision of dreamlike dread and fathomless beauty.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Béla Tarr, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Family Nest (1979), Tarr's first feature film
• New interview with Tarr by film critic Scott Foundas
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim

[criterionsnob]

With Family Nest as a bonus film. Excellent.

[FrauBlucher]

Not great on supps but Family Nest is a plus plus

[ryannichols7]

pretty disappointed at basically no supplements but glad they could include Family Nest

[aox]

This is probably the most exciting release for me since Stalker, Come and See, The Human Condition, A Taste of Cherry, and An Autumn Afternoon.

[MichaelB]

Those who can handle French subtitles (or the original Hungarian, of course), or who have the technical wherewithal to add English subtitles that are easily enough to track down online, may like to know that Carlotta has put out a four-film Blu-ray box including David Mackenzie encodes of Family Nest, The Outsider, Damnation and Werckmeister Harmonies. For me, the price was low enough for the double-dip on Arbelos's Damnation not to be a problem.

Which now means that I have no fewer than six Tarrs in HD - the others being Sátántangó and The Turin Horse - which wasn't a position I imagined myself ever being in not that long ago.

[Mr Sausage]

This is the rare case of an adaptation of a literary masterpiece that is itself a masterpiece. I’d like to imagine the Criterion of a decade ago putting this out in a stacked edition that included Krasznahorkai’s novel.

The book has more explicit political themes, such as how fascists encourage and take advantage of social instability to enact their cruel visions of order. These political themes nicely parallel the larger metaphysical examination of the way ideas of order and chaos swing round each other, with the harmonies invented by Werckmeister being the central example of a necessary idea of order that humans have invented, cannot do without, and yet which is arbitrary, derived not from some universal constant like the music of the spheres but from a need for something workable. Hence it lies precariously over an abyss. Valoushka’s madness, like that of his mentor, stems from watching a world that they had dreamed of being ordered by eternal systems (musical, mathematical, gravitational—all beautiful) break apart into chaos and destruction seemingly without reason, as if chaos were simply a naturally occurring phenomenon that inevitably recurs despite all our efforts.

Krasznahorkai and Tarr abandoned the explicit politics of the novel to focus, profitably, on the metaphysical and philosophical themes. So it always made me smile whenever this or that bigwig critic read the movie as primarily an attack on communism and authoritarian politics. Especially with the title alone announcing the real focus.

[nicolas]

Those who can handle French subtitles (or the original Hungarian, of course), or who have the technical wherewithal to add English subtitles that are easily enough to track down online, may like to know that Carlotta has put out a four-film Blu-ray box including David Mackenzie encodes of Family Nest, The Outsider, Damnation and Werckmeister Harmonies. For me, the price was low enough for the double-dip on Arbelos's Damnation not to be a problem.

Which now means that I have no fewer than six Tarrs in HD - the others being Sátántangó and The Turin Horse - which wasn't a position I imagined myself ever being in not that long ago.

You’re absolutely right and thanks for pointing this out. I did the same and got the set in a discounted bundle with their Wenders’ Road Trilogy set. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

I already feel bad for everyone watching The Family Nest on Criterion’s BD. I can’t believe they didn’t make this a three-disc set with Wreckmeister on one BD and a separate one with the bonus features. Don’t get me wrong - I’m over the moon for Tarr reaching UHD but they could have made this so much more attractive for videophiles. Sadly that’s not the crowd Criterion cater for in the first place.

[denti alligator]

I already feel bad for everyone watching The Family Nest on Criterion’s BD.

I'm confused. Is the Carlotta set UHD? Or is this comment meant to imply the CC encoding won't be optimal because it has to share a disc with the extras?

[MichaelB]

My apologies - I hadn't registered that the Criterion was UHD. (At the time of writing, the top post in this thread merely says "TK".)

But the Carlotta BD looks terrific, so I'm not sure it's worth the considerable cost to me (Criterion UHD discs are eye-wateringly expensive for me to import, which is why I currently only own Days of Heaven and only imported that after scouring reviews to make sure that it was worth it.)

[balintantal]

The book has more explicit political themes, such as how fascists encourage and take advantage of social instability to enact their cruel visions of order. These political themes nicely parallel the larger metaphysical examination of the way ideas of order and chaos swing round each other, with the harmonies invented by Werckmeister being the central example of a necessary idea of order that humans have invented, cannot do without, and yet which is arbitrary, derived not from some universal constant like the music of the spheres but from a need for something workable.

This is a very interesting interpretation of the novel's theme. I always felt that Eszter's obsession with the Werckmeister harmonies was meant to symbolize the cowardice of the intellectuals under the communist regime in Hungary: they would have the knowledge and status to lead their communities but choose to spend their lives working on something abstract in solitude. Valuska, who means well but is always lost, never gets guidance from him and gets pushed around by others, who might lack the intellect and moral standing of Eszter, but they are present in the real world, unlike him.
This idea relates to a period in Hungarian politics called passive resistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_R ... _(Hungary)

[Finch]

What does TK stand for?

[senseabove]

What does TK stand for?

Publishing shorthand for "To Come"

[Finch]

Ah, thanks!

[Mr Sausage]

The book has more explicit political themes, such as how fascists encourage and take advantage of social instability to enact their cruel visions of order. These political themes nicely parallel the larger metaphysical examination of the way ideas of order and chaos swing round each other, with the harmonies invented by Werckmeister being the central example of a necessary idea of order that humans have invented, cannot do without, and yet which is arbitrary, derived not from some universal constant like the music of the spheres but from a need for something workable.

This is a very interesting interpretation of the novel's theme. I always felt that Eszter's obsession with the Werckmeister harmonies was meant to symbolize the cowardice of the intellectuals under the communist regime in Hungary: they would have the knowledge and status to lead their communities but choose to spend their lives working on something abstract in solitude. Valuska, who means well but is always lost, never gets guidance from him and gets pushed around by others, who might lack the intellect and moral standing of Eszter, but they are present in the real world, unlike him.
This idea relates to a period in Hungarian politics called passive resistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_R ... _(Hungary)

Your interpretation is probably also correct. Rather than deal directly with the fascism in his own household, he retreats into a desperate search for a set of harmonies derived from laws, ie. a more abstract and cosmic order to reassure himself that the world is stable and well structured, and of course fails. Unable to confront the practical politics of his hideous wife, and without the intellectual fortitude to confront the yawing pit of chaos and absurdity underlying everything he, well…

But both he and his wife are searching for the same thing, order and control, and find it (or fail to find it) in very different directions. There is probably an intellectual and moral failure on both ends, but I know which one I sympathize with.

[nicolas]

I already feel bad for everyone watching The Family Nest on Criterion’s BD.

I'm confused. Is the Carlotta set UHD? Or is this comment meant to imply the CC encoding won't be optimal because it has to share a disc with the extras?

It’s your second assumption. The encoding of The Family Nest on the CC will very likely turn out really bad. I’m comfortable in stating this now as it’s been the case over and over again in the past when it comes to bonus feature films that share a disc with a feature film (and one this long). The Carlotta set is all BD.

[andyli]

And it's likely that the bonus feature has only DD 1.0.

[rrenault]

Those who can handle French subtitles (or the original Hungarian, of course), or who have the technical wherewithal to add English subtitles that are easily enough to track down online, may like to know that Carlotta has put out a four-film Blu-ray box including David Mackenzie encodes of Family Nest, The Outsider, Damnation and Werckmeister Harmonies. For me, the price was low enough for the double-dip on Arbelos's Damnation not to be a problem.

Which now means that I have no fewer than six Tarrs in HD - the others being Sátántangó and The Turin Horse - which wasn't a position I imagined myself ever being in not that long ago.

It’s honestly a tough decision for me living in France. Do I splurge on 4K SDR imports of Werckmeister Harmonies and the Apu Trilogy from Pixelogic/Radius60? Or do I settle for the more accessibly priced 1080p blu rays from Carlotta and sourced from the same masters that are encoded by David M?

Of course, if Criterion release those titles on 4K in the UK I’ll probably want them unless Werckmeister is still with Curzon/AE.

[hearthesilence]

What does TK stand for?

Publishing shorthand for "To Come"

That link is helpful, otherwise I'd be like "to kome?"

[FrauBlucher]

I'm surprised Criterion didn't get Gus Van Zant and/or Jim Jarmusch to do interviews for this release

[FrauBlucher]

DVDBeaver on the UHD

[Gambit1138]

My review of the disc is up at Cinapse–it's a stellar restoration, the one Werckmeister has deserved for more than a decade. However, it does remove a transfer quirk that's only present in the old Artificial Eye DVD that happened to inform my readings of the film for years. With all of the debates re: how a film is supposed to "look" nowadays, it was surreal to reckon with how something I loved so much about a movie ended up being a random mistake on behalf of one particular transfer.

https://cinapse.co/2024/04/criterion-re ... 00-4k-uhd/

[diamonds]

Long, candid interview with Rob Tregenza detailing his experience shooting part of the film and his mixed feelings about Tarr.