Ross asked, and answered:
Does Bella (sic) Tarr exist?
> Only if the distributors let him.
Amen, sadly. For those interested in checking out Tarr's work, it's
beginning to become available. Various cities in the US, and some in Europe,
have begun screening his films. MOMA in NY had one of the most ambitious
last fall, screening even his short films and his seminal transitional TV
version of ``Macbeth,'' which I haven't seen. The Pacific Film Archive in
Berkeley reportedly had a very good Tarr retrospective last year, as did the
NFT in London. His latest feature, ``Werckmeister Harmonies,'' is gradually
being released in the US by Menemsha Films, based in LA. It played in Frisco
earlier this year, and just played here in LA this past week.
On video, it's now possible to view all of Tarr's work in chronological
order starting with ``Almanac of Fall.'' Facets Video handles ``Almanac.''
Rob Tregenza's maverick video outlet, Cinema Parallel, handles ``Damnation''
and ``Satantango''--all four tapes of it!! (Tregenza's outfit also handles
such titles as Godard's ``JLG/JLG'', ``Helas Pour Moi'' and Haneke's ``The
Seventh Continent.'') Retail price on these titles tend to be
outrageous--upward of $89 per tape. However, adventurous vid rental stores
should already be stocking these titles or soon will be. If they haven't
yet, demand that they do. ``Satantango'' has as good a claim to best film of
the '90s as any film out there--that is no exaggeration. Put it this way:
Any serious video store should have these three Tarr titles in stock. What
needs to happen next is vids of Tarr's three early Ken Loach-like features,
as well as ``Macbeth,'' and of course, DVD versions of the films.
``Satantango'' especially would be best viewed on DVD. It may be that Tarr
is at the point that Wong Kar-wai was at before ``Chungking Express,'' or
Haneke was before ``The Piano Teacher''--a cult item, but sadly obscure.
Then, the breakout film. ``Werckmeister'' could be that film for
Tarr--``breakout'' being a relative term in his case. Tarr also suffers from
being from a so-called ``marginal'' country, Hungary, whose films almost
never receive worldwide distribution. Indeed, compared to many of fellow
filmmaking Hungarians, Tarr has fared quite well in Western Europe, Asia and
the US.
In any case, look for ``Werckmeister Harmonies'' when it flits by your town
for the inevitably brief run. It's really up to film sites like this one to
get the word out on such an essential and powerful film artist.
You can get to Cinema Parallel by www.cinemaparallel.com
Another avenue is to do a Google search of Bela Tarr, which turns up some
good sources and background material. Still, he has been barely written
about in the major Western film journals.
Robert Koehler
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