> REVIEW
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The Turin Horse (2011)
A sad farewell…
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By Danila Lipatov | June 2012
DIRECTOR: Béla Tarr
WRITER(s): Béla Tarr / László Krasznahorkai
Opening with a stark retelling of the 1889 anecdote about Friedrich Nietzsche’s dramatic collapse over a horse that was being violently flogged by its carter, Hungarian maestro Béla Tarr (Sátántangó, Werckmeister Harmonies) ignores the mystery of the philosopher’s mental breakdown and instead focuses his cinematic eye on the rebellious horse. Over the next six days Tarr details the weary beasts gradual loss of interest in life as it rejects to eat, drink and work, threatening the livelihoods of the carter, Ohldorfer (János Derzsi) and his young daughter.
With his ninth and supposedly last film, Béla Tarr’s persistent research of cinematic minimalism, both narrative and visual, is as good as complete. Starting with social cinema verité (Family Nest, The Prefab People) with each film the director has proceeded to deftly peel away superfluous cinematic devices, such as the shaky camera, realistic abundant dialogue and fast editing, to develop an innovative cinematic language all of his own.
In spare, long takes Tarr captures the cyclic rituals of the Ohldorfer’s everyday existence (looking out of the window, eating potatoes, sleeping) never once seeking to peer underneath these mundane actions to show the transcendental qualities of the daily routine like other minimalistic directors such as Yasujiro Ozu. In fact Tarr’s notions are perhaps most reminiscent to those of Chantal Akerman’s (Jeanne Dielman) who’s criticisms of the robotic repetitiveness of people’s lives simultaneously alludes to the menacing fragility of their seemingly established everyday.
In The Turin Horse we witness that even the smallest alterations to the Ohldorfer’s lives leads to universal collapse. Ohlsdorfer and his daughter (the excellent Erika Bók) turn into silent captives of their own dreary existence, stressed by Fred Kelemen’s flowing camera movements that capture the same stuffy space and stumble upon the same objects for six days in a row.
In his previous films Tarr laments the melancholy of resistance and puts the blame for the rottenness and gloominess of the world on mankind. Borrowing ideas from Nietzsche and Beckett, for The Turin Horse, Tarr reconsiders his former socially aware notions and instead suggests that the Earth is being destroyed not only by human but also by some great cosmic force. The imperial winds bellowing across the ravaged land serving as a constant almost poetic threat of the approaching end of days.
Another source of inspiration for Tarr was Van Gogh’s painting The Potato Eaters. Compared to the Ohldorfer’s disintegrating universe, the sombre dinner of Van Gogh’s tired peasants seems emotionally rich and slightly inviting. Tarr has long strived for ‘concrete’ cinema, avoiding any metaphors or religious allusions and that’s where the refreshing Beckettian absurdity of The Turin Horse stems. Emptiness and impending doom are as permanent as the potatoes the Ohldorfer’s continuously eat every day and constantly present in the same meaningless physical actions of the protagonists. With all the traces of spirituality banished there is something mildly comical in the way the characters continue with their routine trying in vain to avoid the unavoidable.
Tarr’s road to minimalism could be easily compared to Beckett’s, who started with modernist novels and ended up writing severely minimalistic plays, like the 25-second Breath (an empty stage littered with garbage coupled with sounds of breathing and screaming). With The Turin Horse, Tarr creates his ultimate masterpiece that condenses his previous ideas and shows the full impact of pure minimalistic art.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
László Krasznahorkai and Tarr plot their mundane apocalypse with expert
precision, cleverly incorporating the ideas of Beckett and Nietzsche and bringing
them to life through expressive cinematic imagery. 5
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
Sparse shots, long takes, intimidating visuals, Béla Tarr continues to avoid the
dramatic in his pursuit of minimalistic purity creating a cinematic vision that’s
as profound as it is unique . 5
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
A gruelling tour-de-force from a true master of cinema. Essential viewing. 5
