Films That Touch Me Ep. 1: Werckmeister Harmonies

I call this series of essays “On the Films That Touch Me.” I plan on exploring some of my favorite movies and why they mean so much to me. Hopefully, I can open you guys up to a world you never knew. One day I want to become a film critic. This is my passion, so now I’m going to get into it. First up is:

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Bela Tarr

This movie is definitely not for everybody. That is for sure. If you can find this, good luck. I got it off of Blockbuster Online, but you won’t be finding it in-store. You’re best finding it on Ebay.

So, this movie explores one of my personal favorite styles- surrealism. The film is in black and white. It revolves around a young, optimistic man in a bleak, boring town in France. He works alongside his family and takes care of an older man who has trouble getting around. His otherwise boring and average world is changed when the circus comes to town.

But this isn’t the average circus. This circus has a whale. That’s right- a huge, dead, stinking whale carcass. It’s kept in a huge trailer that appears to be the only thing actually in the circus. Everybody shows up to see the whale. However, rumors begin to spread that there is a man who possesses the powers to see the future. He rouses crowds and creates riots and debauchery amongst the townspeople.

Our protagonist is such an optimistic and lively young lad. He has a lot to look forward to. The whale and all the excitement mesmerize him, but his neighbors don’t feel the same. One of his neighbors blackmails the older man he takes care of in order to get townspeople to petition against the circus. You never see any of this destruction for most of the movie, and an eerie sense pervades you that something dreadful will go down.

The uniqueness of this rather long (about 2 hours and 20 minutes) film is the length of the shots. The film is made on 32 single takes. That means you have 32 scenes, each roughly 4 or 5 minutes long without a cut. Compare that to say, Transformers or The Bourne Identity, in which you have hundreds of cuts and camera angle changes. Werckmeister just focuses the camera on the people and what they feel. It’s so simple, so beautiful, and completely profound.

This movie almost brought me to tears. It really did. Eventually, you find out that the rioter does, in fact, exist. He consumes the town, and we do see the riots. People run through the town, starting fires and breaking into stores. We see one particular scene in which the rioters break into a nursing home. It’s so heartbreaking.

Anybody who knows a little of European history knows the horrible violence and dread that has caused so much war and pestilence over the years. Europe is a much different place than the United States. They have suffered so much more as a continent, and now as a more unified entity, than we have ever imagined would occur to us. This movie really lets you feel how it might have felt in Bosnia and Serbia, or in WWII Poland.

And of course our protagonist is devastated. His old confidant, whom he has tried to convince to see the whale, finally goes to visit the animal. The square is empty, the townspeople gone. There is nothing left except the whale. The cold, empty, void in the creatures eyes…it is chilling to my soul.

You may not get this movie. It’s poetry on celluloid. I didn’t know what to expect, but Bela Tarr is really a genius. If you are a fan of poetry, allegory, and surrealism, see it. See it now.

98/100