Since 1988’s Damnation (Kárhozat) inaugurated his mature style, Béla Tarr’s films have been distinguished at least as much by Kubrick-like gaps between their release as by their intrinsic artistic qualities, with just Sátántangó (1994), Werckmeister Harmonies (Werckmeister harmóniák, 2000) and The Man From London (A Londoni férfi, 2007) topping up his filmography. A major reason for that is, unsurprisingly, the challenges of raising funds for such aggressively uncompromising films. (The suicide of The Man From London‘s producer Humbert Balsan didn’t help either).
Which is why it’s good news that Tarr’s latest film, The Turin Horse (A torinoi lo), seems to have locked all its financing into place thanks to an eleventh-hour €240,000 Eurimages grant, and will start shooting in November, with the aim of a Cannes premiere in May – just two years after its predecessor. Collaborators from previous work include his long-term writing partner László Krasznahorkai and actors Miroslav Krobot and Erika Bók, both of whom were in The Man From London.
Talking of which, this is finally getting a UK theatrical release on December 12, nineteen months after its world premiere. Since it’s playing at the small-scale Renoir cinema and opening during film exhibition’s annual dead zone (pre-Christmas December was always the worst time of the year when I helped run a cinema for a living), it’s safe to assume it won’t be sticking around for long. Time permitting (no small deal when considering the length of Sátantángó, which I’ve only seen once thus far), I’ll try to write up some of his earlier films round about then.