GRADE: 10
A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.
Original title: Werckmeister harmóniák
Director: Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
Country of Origin: Hungary, Italy, Germany, France
THOUGHTS:
Slow, intense, philosophical, oblique, dreary, and yet mesmerizing, urgent and a total visual feast, shot for shot. The town’s descent into blind rage is horrific, as is the helicopter descending on its innocent prey like a giant mechanical vulture. And then there’s the luminous whale at the heart of it all.