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I think you might be right, Tarr's pacing is going to be quite alien and probably very disorientating to the vast majority of people unfamiliar with his films. Once you're a little way in it can be very difficult to guage time accurately although I assume most people check running times out before they go out to see something and in this case they were helped out by the illuminated clock at the front of the cinema!

I think it was the unremittingly bleak tone rather than the rhythm (if you can really separate the two) that was responsible for the general reaction though; it's not a film most people are going to come out of feeling better than when they went in, that's for sure. As much as I love his films I've got to be in a fairly specific frame of mind for them so it's easy enough to sympathise with those who went in totally cold, with no idea of what to expect.

The ending

I think it could quite effectively have ended at various points before it eventually did but showing their continued, inevitable endurance in the face of the ever-increasing absurdity of their hardship was a worthwhile emphasis of that particular theme, I think. Besides, there's always room for more potato!

I'm really still trying to digest the thing and I doubt I'll manage to form any particularly ordered thoughts on it for a good while!

Please please please: come to America!!!

I don't think I have anticipated a film more in my life.

Any news on a DVD? Looks like it will be the only way for me to see it.

It's being distributed theatrically by Cinema Guild in the U.S. in 2012, and they seem to have hinted that it will get a Blu/DVD release next year.

Rsdio wrote:Saw the film last night in Leeds, the first Tarr I've seen on the big screen. Quite an experience all around really, from the typically staggering opening shot to the shellshocked faces of the audience as they left. I got the impression that there weren't many in attendance who knew what they were letting themselves in for...

I also saw this screening, but had to run and get my bus home as soon as it finished. I'm gutted I couldn't stick around to gauge an audience reaction/get friends' opinions. The walkouts I saw seemed to be within the last 15 minutes, maybe to do with it running so late, rather than the film itself?

Looking forward to Satantango in 35mm tomorrow!

When I saw the film (twice!) both times several people inexplicably walked out

Spoiler

just after the sun went out.

I was completely baffled by their timing, because not only was Something Happening, but it was

Spoiler

just about the biggest Something that could conceivably happen in any film

- and the film was nearly finished anyway, and even if you had no idea what the running time was, you'd surely have to assume at that point that it was coming to its close.

In both instances, there were surprisingly few walkouts beforehand. Personally, I think it's better to go in not knowing how many days the action of the film covers, as I think it increases the tension. And I thought the last day worked really well

Spoiler

because it's somehow even bleaker to realise that the poor characters have no easy release, just slow freezing and a diminishing supply of raw potatoes.

JakeB wrote:The walkouts I saw seemed to be within the last 15 minutes, maybe to do with it running so late, rather than the film itself?

It sounds like there were probably more people leaving than I saw then, the two I noticed were during the scene where the girl was reading aloud which, to be fair, WAS fairly excruciating, as people reading aloud slowly generally is. I found it kind of funny because it was obvious that some of those watching thought they were being actively fucked with at that point!

aox wrote:Please please please: come to America!!!

I don't think I have anticipated a film more in my life.

Same. I want an LA run!

zedz wrote:I saw the film (twice!)

Now you're just teasing us. :p

Sound sucks, but regardless, here was Bela's late morning talk at the NYFF, right before they screened The Turin Horse.

Grand Illusion wrote:

zedz wrote:I saw the film (twice!)

Now you're just teasing us. :p

If it helps, one time was in the wrong aspect ratio (1.85)!

MIFF swine, you owe Brisbane for dumping Richard "no Turin Horse for you" Moore on us.

htshell wrote:And I don't know if I fully agree with your ideas on projection. I can't endorse DVD being projected, not only because of quality but also because it's not a secure projection format. I've been to film festivals before that have projected off of DVD and the disc had an error in the middle of a film. Obviously similar problems could happen with blu-ray as well, but I've never experienced this with a projected blu-ray yet (knock on wood).

Last year I went to a screening of the restored Metropolis at the Castro theatre in SF. The screening was advertised as being projected from a blu ray (which I guess is how Kino distributed it?), and while the image quality was generally fine, the disc froze midway through the movie (as Helm is beginning one of her provocative dances). It was really painful, as the projectionist had to stop the blu ray, and try and reload it from the beginning of the chapter. Luckily, when it froze again, they loaded their backup disc and we all sat patiently as the projectionist skipped forward to find the appropriate chapter. One can't blame the theater, but the end result was to take this magnificent viewing space and make it feel a little much like watching a movie in your friend's living room (as he fusses with his equipment).

I'd be very surprised if Tarr let this happen, judging by his comments at the pre-screening talk at NYFF. He argues that people who do not shoot (and have their films projected) on 35mm should not be called "filmmakers," an argument that is at least semantically true. But he seems to abhor any digital processes and I would think would avoid them as a rule (though I can't remember what the intertitles looked like, perhaps they were created digitally). Ironically enough, I spotted two botched reel changes at the NYFF screening...

I saw Turin Horse a couple weeks ago at a special screening, and it looked like a digital print (which, from my perspective, was very disappointing).

It's back at Lincoln Center til the 23rd.

Is there any hint of a UK release for this???

Artificial Eye have it, so it will definitely open - but I don't think they've fixed a date yet. There's an exhibitors' preview screening in April, so it probably won't be long after that.

Robin Davies wrote:Is there any hint of a UK release for this?

If it's of any use to you, the next screening I'm aware of is at Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema on 10th March, showing as part of the AV Festival's slow cinema weekend, with Fred Kelemen in attendance (there's also a Kelemen retrospective) - http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012. I've missed two screenings of this already (Edinburgh and Leeds), but have tickets booked for this (and the Kelemen screenings), and cannot wait, really looking forward to this one.

Wonder if anyone shows up to this expecting Spielberg's War Horse.

I'm slightly dreading seeing this at its upcoming outing at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis with its notoriously chatty and giggly audience. Midwesterners are afraid of a joke going over their heads so they just chuckle knowingly at everything to be safe. The crowd for War Horse at my local cineplex is probably better-behaved.

I'd love to know what anyone could possibly find to giggle at in The Turin Horse - I suppose the initial scene of the father eating the potatoes with his hands, but it's not exactly Buster Keaton.

My g/f couldn't make the screening of Werckmeister Harmonies last week, so this will be her first introduction to Tarr when we see it tomorrow night. I am hoping this isn't a huge mistake.

I think it might be his most accessible film?

swo17 wrote:I think it might be his most accessible film?

Good to know. thanks.

aox wrote:My g/f couldn't make the screening of Werckmeister Harmonies last week, so this will be her first introduction to Tarr when we see it tomorrow night. I am hoping this isn't a huge mistake.

Obviously I don't know anything about your girlfriend but if she's anything like the Tarr virgins at the Leeds showing.. It's a huge mistake. I'm sure she's got better taste though.

Personally I don't think I'd dare to try to introduce Tarr into any relationship younger than about five years. Unless I wanted rid, of course.

Rsdio wrote:

aox wrote:My g/f couldn't make the screening of Werckmeister Harmonies last week, so this will be her first introduction to Tarr when we see it tomorrow night. I am hoping this isn't a huge mistake.

Obviously I don't know anything about your girlfriend but if she's anything like the Tarr virgins at the Leeds showing.. It's a huge mistake. I'm sure she's got better taste though.

Personally I don't think I'd dare to try to introduce Tarr into any relationship younger than about five years. Unless I wanted rid, of course.

Ha! We celebrated five years two weeks ago.