Another Masterpiece

So I am sorry to say that I am rather late in discovering Mr. Tarr's work, but I would be much sorrier if I hadn't. This is still only the second Tarr film I have seen (after Turin Horse), so I have much work to do. I was a bit worried after the first hour, as I found it rather tedious (even by Turin Horse's standards), but once you give yourself over to Tarr's rythm (and it does take some getting used to), it becomes something of a spiritual experience. From the mesmerizing scene in the hospital to the absolutely devastating finale, it might just be one of the best hours I have ever seen put to celluloid.

Something about Tarr's pacing and his subversion of time and the way audience's expect to encounter films, makes his statements about humanity and its efforts to master nature for its own base desires all the more profound. He brilliantly illustrates the almost spontaneous combustion that can and will occur, both literally and to our humanity, when man attempts to perfect the imperfectable. When perceived politically, almost every scene in this film can be interpreted as a scathing critique of power when it is in the hands of opportunists, idiots, drunks, children and demagogues - as it almost always is - and the masses that follow them. Are we all like Valushka - blindly obeying our masters above?