Directed by : Béla Tarr
Produced by : 13 Productions
Genre: Fiction - Runtime: 2 h 25 min
French release: 19/02/2003
Production year: 2000
The country is in a state of disorder. Gangs roam through the capital and a dreadful catastrophe threatens. Valushka, part-time postman and visionary simpleton, defends a utopia he’s not ready to relinquish. He continues to rave about the miracle of creation, to battle against obscurantism.
We find him in a cafe where he tries to interest the drunken patrons in his cosmological visions. We then follow him through the city to Mr. Eszter’s place. The old man is trying to tune a piano with the aim of restoring the harmony of the harpsichord destroyed by Werckmeister’s closed 12-tone tuning systems.
A mysterious wagon is set up in the city’s large central square. Three hundred men stand beside it, stock-still, silent. A hawker tries to attract clients from a doorway. Valushka pays, enters and comes eye to eye with a huge whale carcass. A dreadful show is announced.
Valushka runs beneath the steel-grey sky. The wind blows. It is November and winter has already descended. The light is harsh, strange. The streets are covered with detritus, the buildings dilapidated, windows smashed. There are no longer any doctors or schools and everyone wonders if the Last Judgement may have already happened.
More info: http://en.unifrance.org/movie/22089/werckmeister-harmonies
