The Turin Horse (2011)
While Satantango was pretty bleak, it also has some funny and endearing moments. The Turin Horse has none of that. Though when a film starts with Nietszche that is to be expected. “Life sucks, and then you die”.
Tarr has a special ability to create mesmerizing pictures from the most mundane situations. I wasn’t quite as mesmerized as with Satantango but close and I was reminded on how much Tarr focuses on the picturesque visual - so much that he sometimes seem to neglect other aspects of filmmaking. Sound in particular. It still sounds like he just uses stock sounds from a “10,000 movie sounds” CD-ROM. Especially the wind effect on repeats is more noticeable than it should be.
What is left is a long slow bleak nihilistic portrayal of a man and his daughter barely living, simply existing with their routine in the windswept desolate muddy farmland - and then things get worse as their only water source runs try. There is no god, no rescue, no future, no hope, nothing. This is life without meaning, stripped to the absolute minimum of existence.
Rating: 4.5