Werckmeister Harmonies

This is my first Béla Tarr and from it I got some I am not the biggest fan of and some that feels as if it was made to string the chords of my soul. Shot in petrifying black and white, Tarr weaves a story of the harrowing consequences of idolatry, fear, and most of all, the crushing mental effects of tough times in a nation. This is, to me, the best post-war film ever made, and that speaks to maybe the best third act I have ever seen considering the fact that I wasn’t exactly in love with the second. Technically brilliant, emotionally captivating, a film that pulls you into its time and drowns you in its misery. I went back and forth in the time following my watch as to what my final rating would, but it becomes clear to me now that anything less than a five would betray just how absorbed I was in the first half hour and the back 45.