9 Movies Directed by Bèla Tarr

Family Nest

Family Nest

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1979-01-25

Languages:

Hungarian

Countries:

Hungary

Runtime:

108 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (585 Reviews)

Director:

Bèla Tarr

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

The breakdown of the relationship of a couple by living in a flat of the husband's parents.

The Prefab People

The Prefab People

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1982-12-09

Languages:

Hungarian

Countries:

Hungary

Runtime:

102 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (607 Reviews)

Director:

Bèla Tarr

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

A husband and wife, drifting apart, reflect on the events leading up to the worst argument of their marriage.

Almanac of Fall

Almanac of Fall

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1985-01-17

Languages:

Hungarian

Countries:

Hungary

Runtime:

119 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (676 Reviews)

Director:

Bèla Tarr

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

A large, claustrophobic apartment is the setting for this intense chamber drama. In this dense setting, the inhabitants of the apartment reveal their darkest secrets, fears, obsessions and hostilities.

Damnation

Damnation

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1988-10-20

Languages:

Hungarian

Countries:

Hungary

Runtime:

120 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.9 (3061 Reviews)

Director:

Bèla Tarr

Cast:

Writer:

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai

Bèla Tarr

Fullplot:

Karrer plods his way through life in quiet desperation. His environment is drab and rainy and muddy. Eaten up with solitude, his hopelessness would be incurable but for the existence of the Titanik Bar and its beautiful, haunting singer. But the lady is married and Karrer is determined to keep her husband away...

Satantango

Satantango

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1994-04-28

Languages:

Hungarian

Countries:

Hungary, Germany, Switzerland

Runtime:

450 min

IMDB Ratings:

8.5 (5573 Reviews)

Director:

Bèla Tarr

Genres:

ComedyDrama

Cast:

Writer:

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (novel)

Mihèly Vig (story)

Pèter Dobai (story)

Barna Mihèk (story)

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

Bèla Tarr (screenplay)

Fullplot:

In a small, dilapidated village in 1990s Hungary, life has come to a virtual stand-still. The Autumn rains have started. A few of the villagers expect to receive a large cash payment that evening, and then plan to leave. Some want to abscond earlier with more than their fair share of the money. However they hear that the smooth-talking Irimias, whom they thought had died, is returning. They are apprehensive that he will take all their money in one of his grandiose schemes to keep the community going.

Werckmeister Harmonies

Werckmeister Harmonies

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2001-02-01

Languages:

Hungarian, Slovak

Countries:

Hungary, Italy, Germany, France

Runtime:

145 min

IMDB Ratings:

8.2 (7859 Reviews)

Genres:

DramaMystery

Cast:

Writer:

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (novel)

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

Bèla Tarr (screenplay)

Pèter Dobai (additional dialogue)

Gyuri Dèsa Kiss (additional dialogue)

Gyèrgy Fehèr (additional dialogue)

Fullplot:

This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost. It is bitterly cold weather - without snow. Even in this bewildered cold hundreds of people are standing around the circus tent, which is put up in the main square, to see - as the outcome of their wait - the chief attraction, the stuffed carcass of a real whale. The people are coming from everywhere. From the neighboring settlings, even from quite far away parts of the country. They are following this clumsy monster as a dumb, faceless, rag-wearing crowd. This strange state of affairs - the appearance of the foreigners, the extreme frost - disturbs the order of the small town. Aambitious personages of the story feel they can take advantage of this situation. The tension growing to the unbearable is brought to explosion by the figure of the Prince, who is pretending facelessness. Even his mere appearance is enough to break loose destructive emotions...

The Man from London

The Man from London

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2008-01-31

Languages:

French, English

Countries:

Hungary, Germany, France

Runtime:

139 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (2377 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Georges Simenon (novel)

Bèla Tarr (screenplay)

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

Fullplot:

One night Maloin, a switchman at a seaside railway station situated by a ferry harbor, witnesses a terrible event. He is just watching the arrival of the last ferry at night from his control room on top of a high iron traverse from where he can see the whole bay. Suddenly he notices that the first of the disembarking passengers, a tall thin figure (a certain Brown as it will turn out later) leaves the harbor, but not on the usual route: after getting through customs, he goes around the dock and then withdraws into a dark corner, waiting. Opposite him, in front of the ship, another man soon appears and throws a suitcase towards the man on the shore. He goes and picks it up, then waits in an dark corner for the other man to join him. When he arrives, however, they begin to quarrel and finally, in the course of the vehement fight, due to a hit that turns out to be fatal, the shorter one falls in the water and sinks, clutching the suitcase in his hand. Maloin is watching the scene, astonished. In a state of fear and shock, he opens the door of his control room, but the sharp and loud creaking sound disturbs and frightens away the murderer. Brown is forced to flee before being able to fish out the suitcase from the water. After the murderer disappears down one of the streets behind the harbor, Maloin cautiously climbs down from his cabin to the shore. When he realizes that there is nothing he can do for the victim, he dredges up the suitcase. He takes it up to his control room and opens it: it is packed with money. He is dazzled. He does not go either to call the police or fetch the murderer; he just stares at the pile of money. He simply cannot believe his eyes. Then, after meticulously drying and counting the banknotes, he hides the suitcase in his closet and locks it. At dawn, when his colleague arrives, he acts as if nothing had happened. He returns home on his usual route. Nevertheless, this path is not the same anymore;

The Man from London

The Man from London

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2008-01-31

Languages:

French, English

Countries:

Hungary, Germany, France

Runtime:

139 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (2378 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Georges Simenon (novel)

Bèla Tarr (screenplay)

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

Fullplot:

One night Maloin, a switchman at a seaside railway station situated by a ferry harbor, witnesses a terrible event. He is just watching the arrival of the last ferry at night from his control room on top of a high iron traverse from where he can see the whole bay. Suddenly he notices that the first of the disembarking passengers, a tall thin figure (a certain Brown as it will turn out later) leaves the harbor, but not on the usual route: after getting through customs, he goes around the dock and then withdraws into a dark corner, waiting. Opposite him, in front of the ship, another man soon appears and throws a suitcase towards the man on the shore. He goes and picks it up, then waits in an dark corner for the other man to join him. When he arrives, however, they begin to quarrel and finally, in the course of the vehement fight, due to a hit that turns out to be fatal, the shorter one falls in the water and sinks, clutching the suitcase in his hand. Maloin is watching the scene, astonished. In a state of fear and shock, he opens the door of his control room, but the sharp and loud creaking sound disturbs and frightens away the murderer. Brown is forced to flee before being able to fish out the suitcase from the water. After the murderer disappears down one of the streets behind the harbor, Maloin cautiously climbs down from his cabin to the shore. When he realizes that there is nothing he can do for the victim, he dredges up the suitcase. He takes it up to his control room and opens it: it is packed with money. He is dazzled. He does not go either to call the police or fetch the murderer; he just stares at the pile of money. He simply cannot believe his eyes. Then, after meticulously drying and counting the banknotes, he hides the suitcase in his closet and locks it. At dawn, when his colleague arrives, he acts as if nothing had happened. He returns home on his usual route. Nevertheless, this path is not the same anymore;

The Turin Horse

The Turin Horse

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2011-03-31

Languages:

Hungarian, German

Countries:

Hungary, France, Germany, Switzerland, USA

Runtime:

146 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.7 (8954 Reviews)

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

Lèszlè Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

Bèla Tarr (screenplay)

Fullplot:

1889. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that would make him bed-ridden and speechless for the next eleven years until his death. But whatever did happen to the horse? This film, which is Tarr's last, follows up this question in a fictionalized story of what occurred. The man who whipped the horse is a rural farmer who makes his living taking on carting jobs into the city with his horse-drawn cart. The horse is old and in very poor health, but does its best to obey its master's commands. The farmer and his daughter must come to the understanding that it will be unable to go on sustaining their livelihoods. The dying of the horse is the foundation of this tragic tale.

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