Satantango (1994) Sátántangó (original title)

Director:

Béla Tarr

Writers:

László Krasznahorkai (novel) and
Mihály Vig (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

28 April 1994 (Hungary)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

In a small dilapidated village in 1990s Hungary, life has come to a virtual standstill. The autumn rains have started...

Plot Keywords:

1990s | Rain | Hungary | Pub | Writer

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Mihály Vig	...	Irimiás
Putyi Horváth	...	Petrina
László feLugossy	...	Schmidt
Éva Almássy Albert	...	Schmidtné
János Derzsi	...	Kráner
Irén Szajki	...	Kránerné
Alfréd Járai	...	Halics
Miklós Székely B.	...	Futaki
Erzsébet Gaál	...	Halicsné
Erika Bók	...	Estike
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
György Barkó	...	Iskolaigazgató
Peter Berling	...	Orvos
András Bodnár	...	Horgos Sanyi
Ilona Bojár	...	Horgosné
Péter Dobai	...	Százados
István Juhász	...	Kelemen
Zoltán Kamondi	...	Kocsmáros
Barna Mihók	...	Kerekes
Mihály Ráday	...	Narrator (voice)

Directed by
Béla Tarr

Writing credits
László Krasznahorkai		novel and
Mihály Vig		story &
Péter Dobai		story &
Barna Mihók		story
László Krasznahorkai		(screenplay) &
Béla Tarr		(screenplay)

Produced by
György Fehér	....	producer
Joachim von Vietinghoff	....	producer
Ruth Waldburger	....	producer

Original Music by
Mihály Vig

Cinematography by
Gábor Medvigy

Film Editing by
Ágnes Hranitzky

Costume Design by
János Breckl
Gyula Pauer

Production Management
Tibor Dimény	....	production manager
Gábor Koncz	....	production manager
Ernõ Mihály	....	production manager
Gábor Téni	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Zoltán Gazsi	....	second assistant director
János Hollós	....	first assistant director
Ágnes Hranitzky	....	first assistant director
András Kécza	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Csaba Erös	....	sound recordist
József Kardos	....	sound recordist
György Kovács	....	sound designer
György Kovács	....	sound re-recording mixer
Lajos Ledniczky	....	boom operator
István Pergel	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Péter Pásztorfi	....	special effects technician

Stunts
Zoltán Gulyás Kiss	....	stunt arranger
Krisztian Kery	....	utility stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Tamas Nyerges	....	Steadicam operator

Other crew
Ferenc Kállai	....	voice dubbing: Peter Berling

Thanks
Alf Bold	....	dedicatee

Production Companies

• Mozgókép Innovációs Társulás és Alapítvány
• Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion (VVF)
• Vega Film
• Magyar Televízió (co-production)
• Télévision Suisse-Romande (TSR) (co-production)
• Magyar Mozgókép Alapítvány (support)
• Berliner Filmförderung (support)
• Eurimages (support)

Distributors

• Eye Division (2012) (Italy) (DVD)
• Pierre Grise Distribution
• Rai Tre Radiotelevisione Italiana (1995) (Italy) (TV)

Also Known As:

"Sátántangó" - Hungary (original title)

Runtime:

450 min

Country:

Hungary | Germany | Switzerland

Language:

Hungarian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA | UK:15

Company:

Mozgókép Innovációs Társulás és Alapítvány

Trivia:

Dorka Gryllus visited a friend on the set of Sátántangó, and was impressed by the whole "feeling of film making". It was then, when she decided to be a film actress - and in a few years, she became a famous Hungarian actress.

Quotes:

Captain:Not that human life was so highly valued. Keeping order appears to be the business of the authorities, but in fact it's the business of all. Order. Freedom, however, has nothing human. It's something divine, something... our lives are too short for us to know properly...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Elephant (2003)

A masterpiece for this decade

I was mesmerized by this 7-hour long 1994 Hungarian film called "Satantango." Filmed entirely in black and white, director Bela Tarr has created some of the most stunning images I've seen on film. The opening shot, about 10 minutes long, is an enormous tracking shot following a herd of cows wandering through an otherwise desolate village. Then there's this 10-minute take of a window at dawn. Everything but the window is dark, then ever so slowly morning light brings the objects in the room into view, a character finally enters, peers out the window, then goes back to bed. There's a 5-minute tracking shot of two characters hurrying down the street in a horrendous wind while a veritable tornado of garbage and litter whirls about them. There's a stark, almost surreal woods strewn with fog. No take is less than a minute long, and there are about a dozen around 10 minutes. The average edited shot in a Hollywood film is less than 10 seconds. It's almost mind-boggling the logistical and practical difficulties of sustaining such long takes. In a great many, Tarr utilizes extensive camera movement. The camera tracks and weaves and gives you a sense of space found in few other films -- maybe those of a Welles, Ophuls, or Kubrick. The dance in the middle of the film from which the film takes its title is shown in one 10-minute take. It cuts away to a little girl watching the dance for a few minutes, then cuts back to the dance for another 10-minute take. And nothing about this sequence is boring. The eight actors in the scene carry on heartily. Another inspired shot has the camera revolving around seven sleeping characters while a narrator describes the dreams of each.

The story concerns a group of poor villagers who gets conned by a smart talker who was once one of their own into giving up all their money to go live on a non-existent communal farm. The first 4-1/2 hours is made up of 5 "stories" from the perspective of different characters over the course of the same day. Some of the events in each story overlap, so you see them occur again and again, but each time from a different perspective since they occur in the context of a different character's life. It is not unlike what Tarantino does with a segment in "Jackie Brown," but whereas Tarantino's technique is tiresome because it is plot-related, Tarr's is a grand achievement in tone.

The first story shows us Futaki, who while having an affair with Mrs. Schmid, finds out that her husband is planning to make off with the money that eight villagers have come into through one of conman Irimias's schemes. Then they both discover Irimias, who was thought to be dead, has returned to their village. The second story follows Irimias and his trying to evade trouble with the law. The third shows us a doctor who observes the other villagers and who writes down everything he experiences in journals that he keeps. The fourth has a young girl taking out her miseries in life on a cat and contemplates suicide. The fifth shows all the pertinent villagers gather together at a bar and drinking and dancing until they are all in a drunken stupor.

Satantango is one of the grand achievements in cinema of this decade.