Rotten Tomatoes Logo Do you want to see ‘Werckmeister Harmóniák’?

Werckmeister Harmóniák (2000)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

92

liked it
Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 4,044

My Rating

Movie Info

Bela Tarr follows up on his seven-hour epic Satantango, considered by some critics as one of the finest films of the 1990s, with this elegant, haunting work about the cycles of violence that have dogged Eastern European history. Jancos (Lars Rudolph) is a wide-eyed innocent who works as an occasional postal worker and as a caretaker for Mr. Ezster (Peter Fitz). An outsider and a visionary, he marvels at the miracles of creation, from the planets rotating in the heavens to the sundry animals on

Feb 28, 2006

Menemsha

Cast

All Critics (29) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (2) | DVD (4)

Six years after the 7-1/2-hour Satan's Tango, Magyar maverick Bela Tarr makes a stunning feature return with "Werckmeister Harmonies," another hypnotic meditation on popular demagogy and mental manipulation that's a snap at 145 minutes.

October 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Bela Tarr's style seems to be an attempt to regard his characters with great intensity and respect, to observe them without jostling them, to follow unobtrusively as they move through their worlds, which look so ordinary and are so awesome, like ours.

September 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A chilling, mesmerizing, intense account of ethnic cleansing (in spirit if not in letter) from Hungarian master Bela Tarr.

September 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Using long takes, sensuous camera movements and the mournful beauty of Mihaly Vig's score, Tarr offers in Werckmeister Harmonies an indelible statement on loneliness and spiritual thirst.

February 1, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An unabashed art film of real daring and power.

December 27, 2001 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Rudolph is superb as the film's taciturn protagonist.

October 16, 2001 Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Here cosmos and chaos, action and reaction, hope and despair, love and anger, all bump and grind together in a Satanic tango

May 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film

It's shot in static or very slow-moving long-takes; the monochrome images are deliberately oppressive; the pace would strike the organisers of a state funeral as excessively slow.

September 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comments (3)
Observer [UK]

Limited appeal, a slow pace, a demanding film; but as interesting a work of art as the best of films

April 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Habit | Comment
Movie Habit

Operatic.

March 28, 2006 Full Review Source: Not Coming to a Theater Near You | Comment
Not Coming to a Theater Near You

A film that encourages one to put on their thinking cap.

March 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

dares to say the apocalypse has a startling, bleak beauty all its own.

March 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

Facets Video has allowed their staff of pigeons to poop on Bela Tarr's film monument. Still, Region 1 audiences will have to make do until a Criterion-like dove comes to their rescue.

February 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Weird, wonderful, witty and unsettling.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

It is an arduous task, but the film achieves a transcendent and ethereal beauty that only the few truly great masterpieces attain.

April 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Cinematic Reflections | Comment

For once, understanding is less important than experiencing.

July 8, 2003 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

This will be a tough watch for many: an uncompromisingly difficult and severe experience. But I found it unique, mesmeric and sublime.

April 20, 2003 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

Werckmeister Harmonies exerts a peculiarly powerful spell.

April 15, 2003 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Tarr's true achievement is to attain the condition of silence, and of bottomless, awesomely inscrutable nightmare.

April 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | Comment
Sight and Sound

Perhaps Tarr's greatest gift is his merciless sense of cinematic economy and an ambiguity that springs not from some intellectual conceit but from the sheer honesty of his gaze.

January 19, 2003 Comment
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

The film creates a vivid sense of the reality of the townspeople and their daily lives, even though Tarr deliberately makes their social relations hard to decipher.

June 11, 2002 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

The pacing is slow, but the film is entrancing and earns a permanent place in the viewer's mind.

May 30, 2002 Comment
New Times
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Werckmeister Harmóniák

Fantastic begining, great ending & interesting thought-provoking concept, but overlong movie with overlong sequences

February 15, 2009
arashxak
Arash Xak

Super Reviewer

You Europeans can pretend to like this shit all you want but you are not fooling me, no sir.

November 17, 2008
ceWEBrity

Super Reviewer

Werckmeister Harmóniák Quotes

No quotes approved yet for Werckmeister Harmóniák. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Latest News for Werckmeister Harmóniák

What's Hot On RT

Critics Consensus
Critics Consensus

Journey 2 Not Worth the Trip

Luis Guzman
Luis Guzman

What are his 10 best movies ever?

<em>Amazing Spider-Man</em>
Amazing Spider-Man

See the all-new action-packed trailer!

The Avengers!
The Avengers!

Five new Marvelous pictures

Top Movie Quizzes

LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 18,562 taken
created 12 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 44,420 taken
created 15 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 27,149 taken
created 15 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 27,648 taken
created 15 months ago

Foreign Titles

  • Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien (DE)
  • Werckmeister Harmonies (UK)
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Blog | Developers | Mobile