Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) (b/w, Criterion Collection, Restored, Special Edition, 2 DVDs)

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This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown time in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince—arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens that builds inexorably toward violence. In thirty-nine hypnotic long takes engraved in ghostly black and white, auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky conjure an apocalyptic vision of dreamlike dread and fathomless beauty.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Béla Tarr
Family Nest (1979), Tarr’s first feature film
New interview with Tarr by film critic Scott Foundas
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim

New cover by Polly Dedman