In Béla Tarr’s dour, slow drama WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, an aimless people’s anger and malaise is leveraged to violent ends by figures of power. A desolate town bristles when a traveling circus comes through with a stuffed whale as its centerpiece. Uncertain of its meaning, the townspeople respond with disbelief and skepticism as they suffer through the rapid decay of society playing out in parallel. Starry-eyed mail carrier János lets the grotesque attraction – and the shadowy Prince pulling the strings of the circus – enrapture his imagination while things fall apart, until János himself becomes its victim.
Whether you see optimism, pessimism, the unfeeling cosmos, or just a reflection of yourself in the eyes of the impotent carcass rotting at the center of the town and its story, WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES positions itself among Tarr’s most watchable films – an enigma opting to expose rather than instruct.
“A Whale of a Tale: Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies” by Luke Mosher for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Old" by Mihály Vig from the WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES soundtrack.
Timestamps
0:00 - Episode 264: WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (2000)
4:54 - The episode actually starts
7:47 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary
10:51 - Scaling expectations of Béla Tarr and slow cinema in general
23:56 - Visual and non-visual framing devices
34:07 - The film’s expression of recognizable, universal themes
41:13 - János as our “way in” to WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
52:22 - Grappling with the humanism of Béla Tarr
1:03:01 - The symbolism of the whale and the ending of the movie
1:14:34 - The Junk Drawer
1:19:41 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 2000
1:22:22 - Back 2 the Junk Drawer 4 a Sec
1:24:06 - Cody’s Noteys: Whalemeister Harmonies (whale-related movie trivia)
