Synopsis
A mysterious circus excites a small Hungarian town into a rebellion when a promised act doesn't perform.
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Cast
- Lars RudolphJános Valuska
- Peter FitzGyörgy Eszter
- Hanna SchygullaTünde Eszter
- Alfréd JáraiLajos Harrer
- Gyula PauerMr. Hagelmayer
- János DerzsiMan In The Broad-Cloth Coat
- Mihály KormosFactotum
- Putyi HorváthPorter
- Éva Almássy AlbertAunt Piri
- Péter DobaiChief Constable
- 100
Christian Science Monitor
This is as challenging as movies come, alluding to everything from philosopher Thomas Hobbes to the history of Western music. - 100
San Francisco Chronicle
An indelible statement on loneliness and spiritual thirst. - 100
New York Post
While Tarr's newest epic, Werckmeister Harmonies, isn't intended for the shopping-mall crowd, it is more viewer-friendly and will please adventurous moviegoers. - 90
Variety
A stunning feature -- another hypnotic meditation on popular demagogy and mental manipulation. - 90
New Times (L.A.)
The pacing is slow, but the film is entrancing and earns a permanent place in the viewer's mind. - 90
The New York Times
Mysterious, poetic and allusive, The Werckmeister Harmonies beckons filmgoers who complain of the vapidity of Hollywood movie making and yearn for a film to ponder and debate. - 80
Village Voice
A work of bravura filmmaking. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
The film could easily be reduced to a parable of post-Communist Eastern Europe, but the allegory digs deeper into the very order of things, exemplified by 17th-century musicologist Andreas Werckmeister's arbitrary imposition of a "tempered" tonal system over naturally occurring tunings.