Hungarian Filmmaking Master Béla Tarr Passes Away… Leaving Behind the Aesthetics of Slowness

The legendary Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr passed away on the 6th (local time) at the age of 70. The Hungarian Film Association announced his death through an official statement saying, "He passed away in the early morning after suffering from a serious chronic illness," expressing deep condolences from the film industry. The European Film Academy (EFA) hailed Béla Tarr as "an outstanding director with a powerful political voice" while commemorating his death.

Béla Tarr has established a unique cinematic language through extremely long takes, static black-and-white imagery, and nihilistic narratives that deal with human existential agony. Influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Miklós Jancsó, he redefined the cinematic expression of time and space. His style, which immerses the audience in an apocalyptic atmosphere, offers an immersive experience that transcends traditional cinematic techniques, allowing viewers to experience time and space directly. His black-and-white long takes sometimes reveal the materiality of everyday spaces and objects, imprinting the transience of existence. The films he crafted with such a unique style have profoundly inspired critics and masters worldwide.

Enduring Milestones in Film History: 'Sátántangó' and a 7-Hour Journey

One of the most luminous achievements in Béla Tarr's filmography is the 7 hour 18 minute epic Sátántangó (1994). Adapted from the novel of the same name by László Krasznahorkai, it relentlessly traces the despairing human condition immediately after the collapse of Eastern European communism through 150 long takes. Sátántangó paints a nihilistic picture of disillusionment within the community and moral decay, showcasing the peak of human brutality. Additionally, the film's unique structure, which repeats the same story from different characters' perspectives and reconstructs it in reverse order, has been praised as "a reinvention of cinematic time." His masterpiece is regarded as one of the most significant milestones in modern cinema.

Director Tarr began at the age of 16 with amateur films and revealed his genius by winning the Grand Prix at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival with his debut film Family Nest (1979) which he completed at the age of 22. He later completed his philosophical depth with films like Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) and his last feature film, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, The Turin Horse (2011). The Turin Horse compresses six days of survival struggle into 146 minutes, inspired by the episode 'Nietzsche's Horse.' Béla Tarr recorded the sound of wind at 4km/h over 800 times to amplify the despair of the characters. His films have been acclaimed as "the philosophical end of the human-nature confrontation."

A Progressive Voice as the 'Conscience of the Times'

He was also an artist who continued his principled activities outside of the cinema. He has been vocally critical of the rightward shift and cultural policies of Hungary's Viktor Orbán regime, and has not hesitated to support LGBTQ+ rights events and students' campus democratization movements, providing a progressive and political voice.

After announcing his retirement from commercial feature films with The Turin Horse in 2011, he established a film school named 'Film Factory' in Sarajevo, Bosnia, focusing on nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. He formed a special connection with South Korea by visiting as the jury chairman of the 2014 Busan International Film Festival.

Though the physical form of Béla Tarr, who sublimated the passage of time into art, has departed, the aesthetics of his long takes he left behind are expected to flow forever in the hearts of film fans around the world.