I was kind of dreading this film when it was sent to me. I was a fan of Bela Tarr's work (based on my love for Damnation and Werckmeister) but I was also acutely aware that Tarr's unique shooting style combined with Satantango's length (just over seven hours long) would perhaps be too much for me to take.
It turns out that my fears were largely unfounded. Satantango is indeed a very long film, but it never particularly feels it. His long takes and the way he focuses his view on long stretches on rooms and alleyways actually becomes spellbinding. There's something majestic and primal about the film and it's bolstered by a story that is legitimately fascinating. A small commune have bunkered down in a farm trying to work out how to split a sum of money they've earned.
Treachery is afoot from the offset with characters sleeping with each others wives and members of the group plotting to leave at nightfall. Ghosts from the past are manifested literally when two long thought dead members of the group return with an unknowable purpose.
By spending so long with this handful of characters you grow to appreciate their foibles, they are all a resolutely unpleasant bunch but you also start to identify with just by the way the film is shot. There's a sense of claustrophobia to the interior scenes which makes certain sections almost gruelling and you start to empathise with the villagers need to escape.
Truly a fantastic, fantastic film.
It turns out that my fears were largely unfounded. Satantango is indeed a very long film, but it never particularly feels it. His long takes and the way he focuses his view on long stretches on rooms and alleyways actually becomes spellbinding. There's something majestic and primal about the film and it's bolstered by a story that is legitimately fascinating. A small commune have bunkered down in a farm trying to work out how to split a sum of money they've earned.
Treachery is afoot from the offset with characters sleeping with each others wives and members of the group plotting to leave at nightfall. Ghosts from the past are manifested literally when two long thought dead members of the group return with an unknowable purpose.
By spending so long with this handful of characters you grow to appreciate their foibles, they are all a resolutely unpleasant bunch but you also start to identify with just by the way the film is shot. There's a sense of claustrophobia to the interior scenes which makes certain sections almost gruelling and you start to empathise with the villagers need to escape.
Truly a fantastic, fantastic film.
