The title refers to the 17th century Baroque musical theorist Andreas Werckmeister. György Eszter, a major character in the film, delivers a monologue asserting that Werckmeister's harmonic principles are responsible for aesthetic and philosophical problems in all subsequent music, and should be replaced by a new theory of tuning and harmony.
Werckmeister Harmonies opened to wide acclaim from critics, and has come to be regarded by many as one of the best films of the 21st century. In the 2012 British Film Institute's decennial Sight & Sound poll, Werckmeister Harmonies ranks 171st in the critics' poll and 132nd in the directors' poll.[5]
Plot
In an unnamed, desolate and isolated small town in Hungary[N 1] during a winter season in recent times,[N 2] János Valuska, a young newspaper-delivery man, conducts a performance with drunken bar patrons about the total eclipse of the sun, which disturbs, then silences the animals. It finishes with the grand return of the warm sunlight.
János is devoted to his ’uncle’ György Eszter, a composer and musicologist, who is like a father to him. György records his observations about the imperfection and compromise of the musical scale, as defined by Werckmeister. György proposes changes to the natural scale to make its harmonies more natural.
János goes to the post office to pick up his newspapers for delivery. The workers are unsettled by the ominous signs of the circus' arrival and the cloud that settles over each town it visits.
A “circus” built around a huge stuffed smelly whale and its star performer, "The Prince", who is never seen, come to town in the night. János sees them arrive and philosophizes about God and the whale.
György's estranged wife, Tünde, tries to leverage her political and social status by giving György a list of names to recruit for the "Clean Up the Town movement," with the blessing of the police chief, and demands that György become chairman of the movement, or else she will move back in with him that very evening. She sends her suitcase ahead of her with János. György's struggling cobbler brother, Uncle Lajos, takes the list and passes it on to the agitated crowd in the town square who are unhappy with the failing public services. János is accosted by a thug in front of the open truck housing the whale. Tünde sleeps with the drunk gun-toting police chief.
The presence of the whale and the “Prince” stir up the crowd. János overhears the circus master losing control of his faceless Prince, who speaks (in Slovakian[6]) through a translator of revolutions and ruins. The circus master is afraid of consequences and disowns him. The Prince, now free, inflames the mob who holding clubs, march, then run into a hospital,[N 3] drag inmates out of their beds and beat them. When the rioters finally find a helpless old naked patient, who is all skin and bones, they see in him their impotent, sad and powerless selves and withdraw silently.
After the riot, János comes across the diary of a rioter. It explains that the rioters did not know what they were angry with; so they were angry at everything. Then it recounts the mob's horrendous rape of two post-office girls. On his way home, he witnesses from a distance a meeting between Tünde and a military officer. They depart together on a military vehicle to reclaim the town, accompanied by soldiers and a tank.
János then comes across the body of Lajos, who was killed in the riot. János is told, by Lajos's wife, to leave for his own safety, as his name was on a list held by the rioters. János runs away on the railroad tracks but is intercepted by a helicopter. He finds himself committed to a mental institution with caged beds (a tool of the time for dealing with political dissidents). When György visits him, János simply stares into the blank space and does not respond to György, who recounts to János what has happened since the riot. György has been evicted from their house but gets to live in a shed in the garden whilst his wife, Tünde, with her new status as a collaborator, now occupies the big house with the police chief. György tells János, in the ward, that, if he is released from the mental institution, they can live contentedly together in the shed with his piano. György also mentions that he has re-tuned the piano so that is now like any other, a personal capitulation apparently abandoning any present hopes of reform. János just stares into the blank space.
The film ends with György walking through the town square and looking directly into the eye of the abandoned whale, then walking away and looking back at the now sad and disheveled whale and the “circus” destroyed by the rioters the night before. The whale's rotting carcass is slowly enveloped by the thickening fog.
^The institution is probably psychiatric; one supposes dissidents opposing the regime are kept there.
Production
The film is an international production[7] whose financing took a long time for Tarr to secure.[8]
The credits indicate that filming took place between 1997 and 2000.
In a 2024 interview, cinematographer Rob Tregenza discussed the film's production, including Tarr's dishonesty about financing: "He basically lied to everybody. He said the film was funded, was financed." Claiming credit for innovating the film's opening scene and hospital sequence, Tregenza stated, "Concerning technology: I think Tarr is probably the most willful, stubborn, and ignorant of all directors I’ve ever worked with." Tregenza nevertheless claims to have taken "a much more sanguine attitude towards it," adding, "It’s now out there and people can watch this; they can look at my two shots that are in that film."[9]
Werckmeister Harmonies received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 92/100 (based on eight reviews), which translates to "universal acclaim".[10] Based on 39 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes reports a 98% approval rating, with an average score of 8.5/10.[11]
Lawrence van Gelder of The New York Times called the film "elusive" and argued that it "beckons filmgoers who complain about the vapidity of Hollywood movie making and yearn for a film to ponder and debate."[12]David Sterritt, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, awarded it a full four stars, remarking, "Tarr wants to stir the imagination and awaken the conscience of his audience rather than divert us with easy entertainment."[13]
In a 2016 poll by BBC, the film was listed as one of the top 100 films since 2000 (56th position).[14]
Film critic Roger Ebert described the movie as "unique and original", writing that it "feels as much like cinéma vérité as the works of Frederick Wiseman." He went on to add the film to his "Great Movies" collection in 2007.[4]
In the 2012 British Film Institute's decennial Sight & Sound poll, ten critics and five directors voted Werckmeister Harmonies among their ten favorite films — placing it 171st in the critics' poll and 132nd in the directors' poll.[5] According to They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, a website which statistically calculates the most well-received movies, it is the 19th most acclaimed movie since 2000.[15] It also ranks 58th on a 2016 BBC poll of the best films since 2000.[16][17]
Home video
The only home video release for a long time in Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) was released by Facets, and had gone out of print. However The Criterion Collection released the film on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD formats on April 16, 2024. On the 18th of November 2024 Curzon released it in 4K for Region 2 (UK, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East). Curzon also includes it their Béla Tarr | A Curzon Collection - Limited Edition boxset which released on the 2nd of December 2024.
