US EditionBéla Tarr dies at 70: a storied legacy of slowing cinema down
- On Tuesday, Béla Tarr, Hungarian auteur, died at 70 after a prolonged illness, his family confirmed through Hungary's national news agency, while the Hungarian Filmmakers' Association announced his passing without details.
- Across one feature film, Béla Tarr's work is defined by extended tracking shots, minimal causality, and duration as an ethical condition, rooted in the Budapest School.
- Notably, Sátántangó is a 450-minute adaptation produced over seven years, while The Turin Horse used only 39 shots and won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
- Shortly after The Turin Horse's release Tarr announced his retirement from feature filmmaking and founded film.factory in Sarajevo, leading its program and inviting mentors like Tilda Swinton, Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Juliette Binoche.
- He also remained politically outspoken, identifying as an anarchist, condemning Viktor Orbán, defending Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, and signing the Libération open letter on Gaza.
33 Articles
33 Articles
Cinema's finale: On 6 January Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr died.
==Career==On 6 January, in Budapest, director Bela Tarr died. He was 70 years old; technically, Tarr did not have the status of a live classic: his films were not successful at festivals; he worked almost not outside Hungary; at the same time, he had long been recognized as an icon by the director of the film; among Tarr's fans, Jim Jarmush, Susan Zontag and Gus Van St., who had completely changed his style under his influence. Anton Dolin spoke…
With him, every film was apocalyptic – and of course in black and white. To counter the colorful optimism that always lies. Now filmmaker Béla Tarr died after a serious illness.
He died Béla Tarr, until yesterday perhaps the most absolute among the few great surviving filmmakers. Somewhere, it seems to me in Evaristo Carriego, Borges alludes to the possibility of accessing an experience where, miraculously, we can be of the same time of the time. It is an ambition of the whole risk because time has this strange "nature": although we are always immersed in it, its impalpable substance eludes every "capture." We only expe…
This Tuesday Béla Tarr, one of the most important film directors of all time, has left, but for those of us who were his students at the film school he created in Sarajevo, our teacher, our referent and a person deeply loved and admired.His departure leaves us with deep pain and difficult to name.
The Hungarian filmmaker created his own Bélaworld in films: the black-and-white Hungarian countryside of dusty pubs, greasy glasses, a biting wind, and desperate men. In 1988, he achieved international fame with 'Damnation' and that viscous, gliding camera.
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