THE MAN FROM LONDON d: Béla Tarr
A londoni férfi / The Man from London (2007)
Direction: Béla Tarr
Screenplay: Béla Tarr and László Krasznahorkai; from Georges Simenon’s novel
Cast: Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, Ági Szirtes, János Derzsi, Erika Bók, István Lénárt
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Style over substance.
That is the plaint of many a critic when they come across a film or book or any work of art they do not like, but which has undeniable merit, at least technically, if not in a few other measures as well. But the fact is that my opening words have little to do with most of the gripes labeled as such. While there are artworks for which the opening plaint is valid, far more often the correct plaint is [...]
by Dan Schneider | August 3, 2009
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Tags: Béla Tarr, DVDs, Film Reviews, Georges Simenon, László Krasznahorkai, Miroslav Krobot, Mystery Movies, The Man from London, Tilda Swinton
THE MAN FROM LONDON Review II
THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part I
From Satantango, Tarr does the almost inverse of what he did with the Damnation sequence, taking several great scenes of people at a bar, and invoking a similar scene in a pool hall in The Man from London. But unlike a similar single scene in Werckmeister Harmonies, which illuminates the lead character’s inner self, the sequence in The Man from London plays as a sort of grotesque bit, tossed in just for shock value.
In Satantango, the bar scenes play out much longer; one scene, in particular, is shown from two different perspectives at two different points in the film. This causes a parallax that is absent in the pool hall scene, which also fails [...]
by Dan Schneider | August 3, 2009
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Tags: Béla Tarr, DVDs, Film Reviews, Fred Kelemen, László Krasznahorkai, Mihály Vig, Mystery Movies, The Man from London
THE MAN FROM LONDON Review III
THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part I
THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part II
We then follow Maloin to his home, where Tarr offers some great scenes of him trying to sleep and dreaming of the prior night. We also see his protectiveness toward his daughter, Henriette (Erika Bok), and his arguments with his nameless wife (played by Swinton), who comes off as a typical harridan. All of these scenes, no matter how well filmed, feel tired and repetitive. By contrast, in Tarr’s earlier Satantango, Erika Bok plays a small girl who violently wrestles with and kills her cat. Despite the ugly nature of that sequence, it elucidates both Bok’s character and one of that film’s major plot points and themes. No such corresponding [...]
by Dan Schneider | August 3, 2009
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Tags: Artificial Eye, Béla Tarr, DVDs, Erika Bok, Film Reviews, Mystery Movies, The Man from London, Tilda Swinton
