The Turin Horse (2011)

A rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse.

Directors:

Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky (co-director)

Writers:

László Krasznahorkai (screenplay), Béla Tarr (screenplay)

Stars:

János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos

7 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
János Derzsi	...	Ohlsdorfer
Erika Bók	...	Ohlsdorfer's daughter
Mihály Kormos	...	Bernhard
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ricsi	...	Horse
Mihály Ráday	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

1889. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that would make him bed-ridden and speechless for the next eleven years until his death. But whatever did happen to the horse? This film, which is Tarr's last, follows up this question in a fictionalized story of what occurred. The man who whipped the horse is a rural farmer who makes his living taking on carting jobs into the city with his horse-drawn cart. The horse is old and in very poor health, but does its best to obey its master's commands. The farmer and his daughter must come to the understanding that it will be unable to go on sustaining their livelihoods. The dying of the horse is the foundation of this tragic tale.

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Plot Keywords:

pessimism | horse | bed | bucket | well | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Hungary France Switzerland Germany USA

Language:

Hungarian German

Release Date:

31 March 2011 (Hungary)

Also Known As:

Le cheval de Turin

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,145, 12 February 2012

Gross USA:

$56,391

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$162,088

Company Credits

Production Co:

TT Filmmûhely, MPM Film, Vega Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

155 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After the opening monologue, there is no dialogue until 22 minutes into the film.

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Quotes

Narrator: In Turin on the 3rd of January 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert, perhaps to take a stroll, perhaps to go by the post office to collect his mail. Not far from him, the driver of a hansome cab is having trouble with a stubborn horse. Despite all his urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver - Giuseppe? Carlo? Ettore? - loses his patience and takes his whip to it. Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene ...

User Reviews

30 takes in 146 minutes will test the audience's patience, but The Turin Horse is more mesmerizing than dull

It is rare to see movie walk outs; people will usually stick out rough films until the end because they willingly paid to be there. It is rarer still to see walk outs in an art house theater because the patrons typically have more experienced expectations on contemplative and metaphorical features. The Turin Horse will split audiences right down the middle. Some will be mesmerized with the incredibly long takes, crisp black and white cinematography, and the relentless but futile struggle of the characters. The other half of the audience will groan, comment to their neighbors, drop their head in the hands, and a few baffled theater-goers will just give up and leave.

The beginning monologue describes the alleged events which led to Friedrich Nietzsche's mental collapse. He walks out of his house in Turin and witnesses a cabman whipping his horse for being disobedient. Nietzsche runs up to the horse, hugs it, and then spends his next 10 years in the care of his mother and sisters deep in mental illness. The film asks, "But what happened to the horse?" Nietzsche is not a character in The Turin Horse nor is it set in Italy; the majority of the time, you will only see an old man, his daughter, their obstinate horse, and their rural Hungarian farm house.

The opening scene is a single shot held for minutes with no interruptions. An old man, Janos Derzsi, rides on a cart pulled by a horse in a truly blinding wind storm. Dirt flies in his face and stings his eyes. The horse sometimes stumbles and trips as he is not whipped by the man on the cart, but by the wind trying to push him backwards. The camera watches them from the side, moves back behind some leafless trees, pushes all the way up until it almost brushes the horse's nose and then repeats the process. All the while, a monotonous organ and string melody repeats itself as if it is a cadence for the distressed travelers.

Back at the farm, the man's daughter, Erika Bok, meets him, separates the horse from the cart, and they then spend the next two and a half hours of the film taking care of the horse, fetching water, boiling potatoes, getting dressed and undressed, and then doing all of that again. There is precious little dialogue between anyone except when a neighbor drops by to borrow alcohol and wax philosophy, and when a band of gypsies briefly invade the family's water supply.

The audience waits for something to happen, expects something to happen, and little by little begin to realize that what is happening is just everyday life. The director, Bela Tarr, says The Turin Horse is about the "heaviness of human life." Life does seem particularly heavy for these two characters as they fumble about in the wind storm to get water, try to get the horse to eat, and carry out even the simplest chore. Tarr does not just glance over these chores either. After 146 minutes, the audience will know exactly who boils the potatoes, how each of them will eat them, where they hang their clothes, and how to hook the horse up to the cart. In 146 minutes of film, there are only 30 takes. In an era when most movie scenes may last for an average of seconds, the scenes in The Turin Horse average almost five long minutes each.

The description here sounds harsh, but I assure you it is accurate. Also, I was one of the audience members who was more mesmerized by the routine movements than exasperated. I will not recommend very many people go and sit through The Turin Horse, but I warn you not to run away from it either. It is a very difficult film to sit through. I do not judge those who left the theater before the film was over, I understand their disbelief. However, when you consider that the director is slowly showing characters get worn down and begin to give up, he succeeds in showing that everyday life is a struggle to fight against.

Surprisingly, The Turin Horse won the Jury Grand Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and is Hungary's entry for the 2012 Best Foreign Film Oscar. Bela Tarr said publicly it will be his last film so I wonder if these prizes and accolades are for the film itself or to celebrate a retiring director. I assume the critics and specialized film festival public truly care for The Turin Horse, but I warn you, it will test your patience and your preconceptions of how much a film is truly plot driven or just about the audience sitting back and watching.