This European epic is seven hours long. It is adapted from a novel by Laszlo Karsznahorkai and reflects the obsession of director Bela Tarr who began the film seven years ago. It took two full years to film this opus. The story is presented through a series of chapters of varying lengths with titles like "The News That They are Coming," "We, the Resurrected," "The Freeze," "Only Problems and Work." and finally "The Circle Is Completed." The enormously complex saga is centered in an abandoned
farm machinery plant upon a Hungarian plain. There live a small band of hobos including three couples, a doctor with a drinking problem. All of them want to leave and they will do anything they can to do it. A set series of events occurs, but the story presents those events from each of the different character's viewpoints. The film ends on an ironic note. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Its seven-hour runtime warns off dabblers, the one-screening-a-day bulk defies profit motive, and its protagonists -- Tarr's "poor, ugly, sad, and damned people" -- deny expectations of pleasure. It is also, at times, funny as hell.
The marathon Satan's Tango is a magnum opus to end all magna opera, a dark, funny, apocalyptic allegory of the Hungarian psyche that stimulates, irritates, soothes and startles with blinding strokes of genius in equal turn.
At seven hours, Bela Tarr's 1994 Satantango is one of those unusual works of contemporary art that demand from the audience a concentrated commitment -- the luxury of time.
A fascinating seven-hour epic black comedy in entropy (ponderous musings on misery and despair) by the internationally acclaimed Hungarian director Béla Tarr.
It is an insidious yet ambiguous political nature that characterizes Sátántangó as a Hungarian film, in turn perpetuating its obscurity and qualifying its art.
I actually watched this over a week, watching an hour a day. Some people have said this isn't the right way to watch it, but for me it was.I have trouble paying attention to long movies, especially ones like this, so I was actually paying attention to each hour, before getting to the point where I stop concentrating.
It was boring. I LOVE long takes, but these were just pointless. The scene with the cat made me cringe, because animal cruelty makes me cry like a baby.
I can't describe it.It's an opus equivalent to what philosophy and opera really mean to anyone who's a fervent supporter of all types of arts.No mental delights,no gloominess,this is an attack to the senses by a long shot!Whoever is against natural formations,better stay away...the hours and the times,literally.
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