amolghadi "Cowardice, sinful Impotence" -- Irimiás, an outsider.As the movie opens, a Herd of Cattle is seen wandering aimlessly in the Village. These animals differ not much from the Villagers they symbolize and share the rural air with. The humans here, are living (or rather dying) a life of Hopelessness, Aimlessness and Despair with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.As if to augment villagers' own Woes, there's Mother Nature, hell-bent on grinding, beating the Villagers down with a Catastrophe of it's own: Heavy Torrential Rains that do succeed in hiding the tears of the Villagers, but also succeed in destroying everything that the Villagers have a scarce sense of ownership of, ...including the thin Coats on their stagnant bodies, which perhaps are their Last Resort of Protection.To stave off a certain Madness looming over them and thus to ascertain Psychological Survival, each villager has an elusive escape-route of his/her own: extra-marital affairs, brandy, note-taking, holy books...anything goes by. It's a tragic affair, because not even small children are exempted from this shadow of Pessimism and their Neurotic Behavior is always simmering on the surface. The degree of Despair in the Villagers can be gauged from the fact that they trigger into some kind of blurry action only after a particular Tragedy strikes them and that's because each villager is a Reactive individual, not willing to find solutions himself/herself, but waiting passively and infinitely for some external miracle to show them the way.Each villager has a Personal Story of his own...and a varying Degree of Madness. The Doctor is mad, the Repent inside him not being sufficient enough to offset his Addictions. Kelemen is crazier than the Doctor. But Kelemen, still, may not be as mad as the Madman who tolls the bells of the dilapidated church the whole day, but he is surely on his way there.Thankfully, Irimiás who arrives from outside the village as per the orders of the Law to help the Villagers, is looking for a Redemption from a personal past of his own. If not for the above quoted stinging words that Irimiás describes the villagers with, until their hearts burn, probably they might still have been lying around snoring, exactly like the Doctor believes them to be. But Irimiás has a plan...not a definite one...but nevertheless he has something that he has brought with himself that the villagers don't have: A Sense of Authority, Leadership Qualities ...and a Glimmer of Hope.Can he save the Villagers from their own Pessimism? ...Or will the Heavy Rains succeed in grinding the Villagers down?---- Sátántangó (1994), a Hungarian Drama from the acclaimed director, Bela Tarr.In a way, this movie is strangely ironic in that, we realize that the level of Despair in the atmosphere is at its deepest...but we also know that it cannot get deeper than this and now the only way out, is the way of Rising high up.The background scores by Mihály Víg, play a very important character in themselves and provide a distinct personality to each scene.The technique that makes this movie unique, is that we are witnessing the same Segment of Time from different Point of Views of various characters involved. Each View, arrives at a common point of a specific Revelation that has an immediate impact and then moves onward to that specific character's Individual Arc that again climaxes with a concrete Event.

pablolivianos Sátántangó deserves to be among the best movies in IMDb Top 250 films page without any doubt. This, unfortunately, will never happen, due to its seven and a half hours of length and its slow pace and atmosphere, for many boring. However, this film is beautiful, melancholic, poetic and also pessimistic, very pessimistic. This can cause that the viewer may feel unable to finish it. But when you reach the point when you get into it, it is very difficult to leave it. It is probably one of the strongest cinematic experiences I've ever have, one of the most immersive, making me feel, in the middle of August, the rain, wind and cold the characters suffer during their endless walks.

Anderson Fernandes After meeting the great and unique Bela Tarr's cinema, with "Wreckmeister Harmonies" and "The Turin's Horse", there was no way to not expect much from this film, acclaimed worldwide and considered by many his masterpiece, it's also the film that best portrays The fall of communism in Hungary. In addition to fulfilling my expectations, "Satantango" surpassed them absurdly, becoming one of my favorite movies, Tarr offers us his well-known sluggishness and subtlety in almost endless takes, filmed masterfully by his cinematographer Gabor Medvigy, who almost compel us to know each character better and more deeply, however important he is in the plot. The director constructs a narrative composed by a dark, surreal and apocalyptic atmosphere, clearly inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky, showing the hard and cold reality of human existence, and the consequences of his actions during the film, starting from simple scenes like those of the Doctor, until Machiavellian dialogues and absurdly dramatic scenes. Edited exceptionally by presenting us various points of view of the same event, there was not even a second in its 7 hour long as I turned my attention away from the screen, the beauty of the work is very noticeable when we enjoy cinematography, and even more Along with an exceptional soundtrack composed by Mihaly Vig, who also plays the character who stands out most in the film: Irimias. When it comes to monologues, Tarr presents us with his philosophical thoughts, bringing religious, political and human subjects like no other! Very good performances when necessary, it is quite evident the effort and patience of the actors in so many memorable scenes directed by Tarr. Currently retired, Hungarian will surely be a extreme missing for artistic cinema, an example of how to intensify a cinematic experience by making it something thoughtful and difficult to forget.

rooprect If you agree with the following statement, then read on; otherwise skip my entire review.The torturing/killing of living things is NEVER justified if the reason is "for entertainment", or worse, "for art".Good, you're still here which means there's hope for the human race. SATANTANGO features a scene where a real cat is shaken, flipped around, rolled in the dirt, rolled over, shaken again, stuck in a bag and hung on a wall. The torture lasts about 10 minutes and can be seen on Youtube by searching "Satantango cat".Not all countries have animal protection laws, and not all directors respect animal life. Oddly enough, it's often the "enlightened", well-respected filmmakers who are the worst offenders. Watch out for Tarr (Satantango - cat tortured), Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublov - cow lit on fire, horse shot and thrown down stairs), Herzog (Even Dwarfs Started Small - monkey crucified, chickens thrown through window), Von Trier (Manderlay - donkey slaughtered), Coppola (Apocalypse Now - water buffalo partially decapitated), Ki Duk Kim (where to begin?), and the list goes on. You can check all my 1 star reviews for more.To all of the above films I say no thank you, just as I'd prefer not to cheer at a bullfight or adore a Nazi lamp made of human flesh, no matter how "beautiful". I'll stick to directors who show sensitivity and compassion, in front of the lens as well as behind it: Kurosawa, Wenders, Jarmusch, Anno, there are plenty enough films to keep me busy.