Béla Tarr

I heard about the Hungarian film-maker and screenwriter Béla Tarr from writer Subimal Misra.

Misra had heard from his friends that the following films of Béla Tarr were screened at the recently concluded Calcutta Film Festival:

Őszi almanach (Almanac of Fall, 1984), Kárhozat (Damnation, 1987, made in collaboration with Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai), and Sátántangó (1994, an adaptation of Krasznahorkai's epic novel, which took over seven years to realize, a 430 minutes masterpiece).

Thus did I learn about Béla Tarr (born 1955), one of the most distinguished film directors of our time.

The picture above shows Béla Tarr (centre) with his wife and editor Agnes Hranitzky, and producer Paul Sadoun.

Here are some resources on Béla Tarr:

Wikipedia entry

Article by Peter Hames

Interview by Eric Schlosser

Article by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Reviews of various Tarr films

Here'a clip from Béla Tarr's film Sátántangó.



And here's an interview with Béla Tarr, made during the 12th Sarajevo Film Festival (August 2006).