Quote:
Originally Posted by Exoskeletal
The Turin Horse
This was one of the toughest films I’ve ever had to watch. There are a lot films that have fallen into that category such as Requiem for a Dream or basically anything from Lars Von Trier but this is a different monster altogether. Hungarian auteur director Bela Tarr apparently claims this is his last film and if it is I can’t imagine what kind of future he is striding too. This film is one of the most existential, bleak, and dark films I’ve ever seen. It is certainly the most demanding on the viewers endurance as there really isn’t much dialogue besides a brilliant monologue in the middle basically shouting how dark and bleak human existence is. There are only 30 shots in the entire film which has a run time of 154 minutes. 30 shots! Each one of these shots showcases the grueling day to day routine of a farmer and his daughter as she dresses him every morning, tends to the horse, fetches water, and cooks their meal of two boiled potatoes. Tarr’s film is a test of your patience just as life is a test of the patience of his farmer and daughter characters. It is a visual embodiment of Friedrich Nietzsche and his writings. Aesthetically the film is flawless. It’s portrayed in black and white perfectly as we are constantly shown a transition of a dark farmhouse with an open field with the wind blowing and dirt flying everywhere. As I said, there are only 30 shots in the film so the camera is constantly moving around its subject as the scene unfolds not blinking an eye. As the film wears on you start to feel the dread and blackness that the characters feel and some of the more haunting images I’ve ever seen come out without really exposing themselves too much. It’s that powerful of a film. If you want a challenging film that rewards the viewer for their patience by delivering a one of a kind experience then check out this film. It’s as important as it is grueling and unrelenting in its reality towards humanity.
5/5 |
I'm actually surprised and delighted to find this thing streaming on Netflix. Because this is some serious art-film s
hit. Not like Aronofsky, but more like Warhol if he was more interested in intellectualism. Thank you, Exo, for pointing it out because I may not have noticed it otherwise. This is the only Tarr film that I have watched and I absolutely loved it. Granted, I was warned about the 30-shots-in-2.5-hours thing so I was prepared. Still, this film makes Ingmar Bergman look like a mainstream Hollywood producer.
I thought that the father, daughter, and horse were all some of the most beautiful characters I've seen on film. I didn't mind at all watching them sit and stare out the window for several minutes at a time. And I was especially taken by the deliberate, unhesitant physical movements of Erika Bok (daughter). Throughout the film she was either motionless or completely, unflinchingly focused on whatever menial task her character carried out. She and Tarr clearly have professional chemistry because she makes his vision come to life like a complex logarithm. I did some research and was quite shocked to see how
disturbingly ugly she is when not being filmed in black and white by Tarr. I found every long-as-hell scene in The Turin Horse to be literally captivating. Because, really, mundane things take a long ass time to do, especially for impoverished people living in the country, barely able to afford anything resembling Industrial Revolution-style technology, in the middle of an unceasing wind storm. And, naturally, they have to do it over and over again just to survive.
For anybody interested in the philosophies of insane nihilistic 19th-century European philosophers that inform The Turin Horse (namely Nietzsche and a little bit of Dostoyevsky) I found this
little gem/review of the film that is worth a read. Don't worry, it's a bona-fide film review, not a bunch of philosophical musings.