Germany, Hungary, Switzerland | 1994 | Béla Tarr

25 years after it debuted, Béla Tarr’s seven-hour Hungarian epic is finally being acknowledged as what we long thought it was: one of the great, essential movies. (In 2012, it was voted the 36th best movie of all time in an international poll of film professionals conducted by Sight & Sound magazine.) Set in a squalid, desolate rural village in late 20th-century Hungary (after the fall of Communism), this bleakly beautiful epic focuses on a group of desperate, destitute, hard-drinking members of a defunct agricultural collective who dream of prosperity and escape from their drab, dead-end lives. So when deliverance comes in the form of a young “messiah” who promises to lead them to a better place, they pack up and follow him. Sátántangó is at once a monumental black comedy; a metaphysical allegory; a menacing mystery with an interlocking jigsaw structure; and a technical tour-de-force with virtuoso long takes, indelible sound effects, and an unshakeable mood of foreboding. “Enthralling for every minute of its seven hours.” –Susan Sontag. “My favorite film of the 90s.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum. 25th anniversary digital restoration! Subtitles. Total 438 min.

Sátántangó, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be watched online from 5/1 thru 5/21 via the link below. Doing so supports the Cinematheque.

http://vimeo.com/ondemand/satantangocleveland