MovieChat Forums > A torinói ló (2011) Discussion > Scene with gypsies and drying up well

Scene with gypsies and drying up well

posted 13 years ago by pamfil_nastase
2 replies | jump to latest

Just saw it (well, a couple of hours ago, yesterday evening) here in Bucharest/Romania - special screening as last movie during the Hungarian Filmdays in the Romanian Capital. Same reactions over here in the audience: some leaving the theatre laughing after 20 minutes, some others spending hysterical applause afterwards. So, nothing new under the sun... when it comes to Mr. Béla Tarr (& others). :-D

The translation (subtitles) was unfortunately pretty mediocre (though sometimes inspired, but only partially), so I'd like to know (possibly from a native Hungarian speaker) what the gypsies said exactly during the hole scene where they are chased away by the swearing Ohlsdorfer-father.

Furtherly I'd like to know if the book in which the daughter spells out a day later was a sort of malignant gift form the gypsies (so to speak a curse for chasing them away from the well), or did I get it wrong? I've read in the subtitles during the scene something like "take this as punishment!", but I couldn't see if they handed anything over to the girl.

I've seen - so far - also "Werckmeister Harmóniák" and would like to understand a bit more of these haunting movies of Mr. Tarr. Nevertheless, I know: "a potato is only a potato."

Thank's for any hints or opinions.

[–] TemporaryOne-1 13 years ago

Responding to the second portion - the book contained Catholic Canon Law. A male gypsy gave her the book in exchange/payment for taking water.It was....appropriate....because the older gypsy woman had cawed, "here comes the girl, her eyes are like the devil", then the male gypsy passed her what appeared to be a bible (salvation, save the unsaved/devil/lost girl). When she began reading the religious gift, it turned out to be a book of canon law, and the passage she was reading re-enforced what the visitor talked about (humans degrading and destroying everything they touched)

Since holy places only allow the practice of things that serve the veneration of the L/rd, and everything is forbidden that is not fitted for the holiness of the place, and since holy places are violated by the great injustice of actions that have taken place within them that scandalize the congregation, for this reason no service can be held there, until, though a ceremony of penitence, the injustices have been put right. The celebrant tells the congregation: The L/rd is with you....

Which corresponds to

Can. 1210 In a sacred place only those things are to be permitted which serve to exercise or promote worship, piety and religion. Anything out of harmony with the holiness of the place is forbidden. The Ordinary may however, for individual cases, permit other uses, provided they are not contrary to the sacred character of the place.Can. 1211 Sacred places are desecrated by acts done in them which are gravely injurious and give scandal to the faithful when, in the judgement of the local Ordinary, these acts are so serious and so contrary to the sacred character of the place that worship may not be held there until the harm is repaired by means of the penitential rite which is prescribed in the liturgical books.Can. 1212 Sacred places lose their dedication or blessing if they have been in great measure destroyed, or if they have been permanently made over to secular usage, whether by decree of the competent Ordinary or simply in fact.

Which in turn is culled from Leviticus.

[–] pamfil_nastase 13 years ago

Thank's, I thought it was something religious, but since the translation I saw wasn't so good (and I'm neither a Catholic), I couldn't figure it out precisely.

Your interpretation about re-enforcing the visitor's eschatology sounds plausible to me.

Thank you for the accurate quotations!