Satantango

If you want to dance with. The devil you better say never, because a dance with the devil may last you forever (ba da da dum dum) The song Dance With The Devil by Immortal Technique [it's like Incendies] I think it is important to know that I watched this as part of a (failed) challenge where I watch Satantango and listen to Daughter Of Darkness (another 7 hour thingy) in 1 day. I was fighting sleep about 2 hours in and that was the first log. This is not a Tarr problem, this is a me and a lasagne food coma problem. This film is intimidating, if you're reading this as a factor on wether to watch it, do. It's long, but not in a pointless way, it's patient and it lets you start to start to gain a grasp of such a rich film, it's patient and it lets you admire the cinematography. The book is too, written 9 years before around the same time Gorbachev took over the USSR, things were dire the world was evil behind the iron curtain, communism probably never seemed like a worse idea. This film gained little recognition but I'm glad to say the novel has, winning a noble prize decades after being published and a few years after being translated, as I will say many times after I wanna read this and learn this story so well. It doesn't feel like watching both main Godfather's with a long dinner in the middle, it feels more like a 4 hour film. You should watch this and be ready to delve into this world, it's showing at my classic cinema in a few months overnight and I'm not sure wether I want to see it despite it being truly fabulous. To sum up the story quickly Dune but 7½ hours and incredibly bleak A film of such structure and density shouldn't exist, that's something me and the people that don't like this agree with. I said that to myself many times throughout this film, I didn't think that I was watching some made up people, I felt like I was watching an actual documentary even with such avid cinematography, the excessively long takes (oftentimes 10+ minutes) make every cut hit like a truck as if you've grown with these characters and lived in the setting. To first talk about this film I believe it essential to remember about how Communism/Populism came to be in Russia, beyond Marx and Eagles. With the Russian Revolution and the tsar, the human condition and the inevitable search for pleasure in a world of struggle. Russia was a bit of a hell hole in 1917, resembling dark ages Europe, and practically still living under feudalism long after the Industrial Revolution. With that very rigid class structure and absolutely no mobility, that's why when Marx was telling them to rise up and seize the means of production and there was nothing to lose but their chains. It sounded like a bloody fantastic idea. This lead to one of the most deadly civil wars in history between the Bolsheviels and the Mensheviks. After that Lenin took over, he was fine for the small amount of time he drove the USSR death machine. The modern day communists, albeit few and far between, will tell you that's where the fun ended. Because Stalin took over, and that's when the death machine certainly became a death machine. One thing that I will focus on with Stalin, was the 5 years plans that he did to show improvement and keep that propaganda running, vague goals that the means of production did fit because the Soviet work force is one of a kind before WW2 and then it'd fund military parades to show how well they were doing. That's all the film seems to cover in this microcosm. The film opens. Cows. Cows. Cows. For 8 minutes. Cows. It sets the image well, cows jumping all over in the mud on one another for a time that is pretty much too long. We are then introduced to a seemingly nonsense monologue which starts and ends the film. This circular structure is highly important to this film as the author stated that he wanted it to be 6 steps forward and six steps back, just like the tango. It describes one of the inhabitants Futaki being awoken by bells, church bells which do not exist there is no church for kilometers and it doesn't have a bell. This has indications heaven, an illusion is ringing the bells of heaven but there is no heaven. This is similar to Irimais, promising paradise but instead just taking all their money and leaving them in a worse place, The outline of the story is clear, this place sucks balls. No factory, no farm, all the people are prostitutes, con men and drunkards, I just saw a girl torture her cat to death what the hell? But there's money, a whole year's pay, they have to divey it up, it's really all they talk about, it's part greed and part survival and it's hope in pessimism. Pessimism and control are all over, these people can't be trusted going back to the very difficult to watch torture scene, we see that these people aren't good, they kill cats because they can. They are bad they shouldn't run themselves. We see an affair in the first time we see a character. Irimais is not good either, he's the biggest con of them all. He actively is outspoken about work and nearly gets bumped as an undercover police agent for this. He says some very very nasty slander over his fellows when documenting them back, he sees himself as superior, he's manipulative, he knows what he's doing and he's really like Lenin (through the eyes of an 1985 Hungarian author). His rumor of his return after about a year drives up a lot of gossip amongst the townfolk, he's just like them but they worry over their money and the dangers be bring. When he comes it's about the same time Estike passes to the elements in a (BEAUTIFUL) shot and (BEAUTIFUL) monologue, when the townsfolk are at their lowest, he uses his silver tongue and convinces them to hand over their money to a much brighter day Pessimism is it's own thing in Satantango, there is no escaping it. In a shot that spans about 20 minutes we see the drunken inhabitants of this village dance drunkenly, as if they can't face their worries and hopelessness. We see minor things creep through a bump or a shove. They need hope. In the midst of this 'tango', the young girl watches hopeless, she needs a place to stay for her mother is among the drunkards trying to escape the hell hole that these authors and auteurs lived through, the bar is tired and often used This films main focus is the human condition, why do they search for meaning in a barren world that doesn't call back. Why do they trust Irimais' trap which their grandfathers fell for, why do they trust him despite them being confident that it's a trap. I think to David Byrne in the Once In A Lifetime music video imitating religious practices, with the words letting the days go by, letting the water hold me down echoing (it's an epic song trust,) these people are just wishing upon a star Satantango feels like a dystopia, it feels like a world where you can't help but be destraught and destroyed where you have to resort to alcohol, where the only fire in the world of dark burns you. But at the same time it's so real, unbelievably nihilistic but based on the author's life. Tarkovsky himself recognizes the bluntness of his films a quote regarding Tarkovsky he said. Tarkovsky is far more innocent than me, in his films rain purifies people, in mine... it just makes mud It is hard to find morals in such a dark dark film but I will leave my take here. Pessimism or self hate will prime your mind to be taken by false hope or love, so hope or love for yourself, for that's the only true hope or love you will get