Abbas Kiarostami`s career died a couple of years ago when he started using digital Cameras. I was depressed for a couple of years as I felt true artistic cinema has died. Thanks to Béla Tarr I realized I was wrong.

Mysterious, dark and beautiful. I feel like I still don't fully understand it after watching it 3 times but still amazing.

If this is not among the top 10% of the thousands of movies that have been released in the world in the last hundred years, there must be a huge disconnect between popularity and quality: a problem with the idea of voting for the good itself.

Everything about this movie clicked for me. The acting was perfect, the long takes were mesmerizing, the symbolism was powerful, the metaphorical relationship of music to nature and man-made control, and everything else this movie had to offer was absolutely perfect. I loved it.

If you want to keep something with you after walk out from the cinema, it's absolutely for you. I saw it last week, but I can't stop to say to my best friends "you have to watch this". I've never thought that a film can make so much questions for me like this.

One of the finest movies ever made. Tarr has created a masterpiece which explores the relationship between superstition, fear, and totalitarianism, featuring some of the most magnificent photography in the history of cinema. A must-see, if such a thing exists.

A well deserved 3. I do admit it was courageous to shoot the extremely long takes, and minimalize the dialogue as to make the movie seem more "intelligent". Still, this movie made me sleep and did not raise the slightest bit of compassion for the townspeople from me. I think the first few minutes of the movie are very important to whether you buy the entire movie. It relies on the audience's ability to imagine all the possible emotions being felt by the unemotional actors.… Expand

Absolutely one of the most incredibly gripping, moving and astonishing works of film art I've ever seen. Certainly, it's not a movie you just throw on to pass the time--but that is not what the director intended. Like Tarkovsky before him, Tarr's sumptuous long take style renders the viewer mesmerized until a well-placed shift in action and tone prove devastating and gasp-inducing. Not an easy film. But for those looking for something deeper, richer and more mysterious than the usual cineplex fare, this one will blow you away.… Expand

Not nearly as deep as it thinks it is. Overblown and ponderous.

This is magic.

This film deserves praise for the chances it takes. Its visual style and steadily mounting mood of dread are expertly done and hauntingly effective. These strengths keep me from rating this film below a 5. The same cannot be said for its exploration of its themes. It is a film that means to suggest more than is there, a laudable goal but one I don't feel was achieved. Its intentions are simply overmatched by its pretensions. After a while, the wooden performances and long takes become more than tedious and the overreliance on heavy-handed "symbolism" insulting. Ultimately, this film is nowhere near as insightful as it pretends to be.… Expand

Great photography, but not much else. Vacuous wannabee profundity.

I know I'm supposed to comment more on the film than the other comments but I always thought that if you disliked a film then by all means lay into it with vigor. But to criticize those who disagree with you instead is cheap. If the only way you can comprehend those with differing opinions is by considering them to be idiots, then that's pretty darn sad. Werckmeister Harmonies is a long, quite, difficult film that represents the best in art cinema. If you're a fan of Tsai Ming-Liang or Tarkovsky, you'll love this. If you don't like it after 10 minutes you wont like it after 2 and a half hours, turn it off and do something else. Cheers!… Expand

Bela Tarr's surreal epic is an advance in pure avant-garde mastery - proof of Tarr's rise to power in Hungary. There are only 39 shots in the film, yet all are evocative of the presence of true magic. Along side with the great roles in the film, Tarr's mise-en-scene is flawless at capturing the fear and atmospheric in its perfectly realized milieu. By far, "Werckmeister Harmonies" is, in every sense of the word, a masterpiece.… Expand

This movie was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Poorly acted, poorly filmed, and horribly paced. The movie is pointless and unentertaining. You will feel the pain of you brain cells dying throughout the the film should you make the mistake of watching it.

I really wanted to love this movie. I yearned to discover more than artistic photography and moody lighting, but that was all there was. I am very educated and I always seem to understand symbolism in film. Here, if there was symbolism--and dear god I hope that's what that was-- I didn't get it. I kept waiting for the moment of profundity, of closure, of understanding. It never came. If you like surreal, cryptic, bizarre films, then this is for you. Otherwise, ignore the high rating and save your time.… Expand

A huge disappointment. I'm all for very long takes and little plot--the films of Tsai Ming-Liang, for example, are mesmerizing to me--but I found this movie a chore to sit through.

Reading user comments is hilarious. I love it when someone like Brad C. below stumbles unwittingly into a challenging experiment like this one, it flies over his head, and he ends up raging against his own befuddlement. Hey Brad: poorly filmed? Really? I know you were bored, but those long takes are objectively, undeniably masterful in execution. And pointless? I'd say you just didn't get any of its many, complicated "points." In any case, a completely mesmerizing experience, for those hip to Bella Tarr's out-there wavelength.… Expand

Tedious beyond belief. the interest comes in watching someone struggle unsuccessfully to manufacture art. the kind of allegory on display here because there is so little context just comes off as silly. the kind of film I love to hate and for that reason worth watching.

Viva la hongrie!

Simplistic, pretentious, tedious. The only reason people have given this film good reviews is to flatter their intellects and justify the amount of time they've just spent watching a remarkably boring film. Successfully maintains an illusion of artfulness and intelligence without any real substance to back it up.

What would happen in a small town that did not have TV. Could have been written by a first year Social Science student.

The previous user had no clue, this is a film of mind-boggling talent (both in content and technique) that will have you thinking throughout. And probably for many days afterwards. And maybe that's why the other guy didn't like it. There were no car chases, no nerdy kids gettting a makeover or misunderstood loners. Turn on your TV and watch the movie of the week on TBS, you idiot.

Astonishingly slow pace is compensated somewhat by some striking black and white photography and a whale. Your jaw will drop at some of the long takes. It's a small miracle that a film like this found distribution. You won't want to see a mob run towards the camera for five minutes again, but you'll have fun relaying this fact to other movie buffs.

A brilliant and arresting meditation on alienation and political oppression. Some of the most searing images in any modern-day art film, the picture boasts unforgettable music and brilliant photography in gorgeous black and white.

Something like Tarkovsky crossed with David Lynch.. intellectually challenging, even labyrinthine, spiritually despairing, a vision of armageddon following the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe which gave rise to all sorts of deformities in thought and behavior. If one looks at 20th century, the two great ideologies of communism and fascism envisioned apocalyptic violence beyond which lay promise of utopia, racial or egalitarian. But, the destruction that looms over a town in Werckmeister Symphonies has no agenda. It's political violence as a drunken orgy in a whorehouse; nothing lies beyond the orgasm. It's a vision of man's return to primitivism, trapped between discredited and discarded utopian ideologies and the faraway and unattainable allure of triumphant capitalism. Troubling and bleak but at the very least restores our faith in the power of great art. … Expand

This movie looks intelligent, but it's really the most overblown, pretentious, trite, hyperbolic nonsense I've ever seen. I can only assume that those among you who gave this film good reviews are either deeply ironic or too deeply enmeshed in the bourgeois myth of the unassailability of the "avant garde" to be able to judge anything more complicated than a tighty-whitey contest.

Skillfully structured - There are those filmmakers that have the ability to change our perception of film as a medium for telling stories through images and dialog, communicating with a universal audience and creating awareness. Directors like Campion, Loach, Bergman, Kubrick, Kieslowski and Tarkovsky are certainly some of those, and i had a similar experience after watching Bè;la Tarr`s third feature, co-directed by Agnes Hranitzky, which tells the story of an utterly cold Hungarian town where the inhabitants await the arrival of a traveling circus which main attractions are a giant whale and a deformed speaking figure called The Prince. Most of the residents are suspicious about the upcoming event, but the local postman named Janus perceives it as a good sign.

While viewing this film i instantly began thinking of other east European directors such as Alexandr Sokurov, Theo Angelopoulos and Andrei Zvyagintsev who's film are marked by their focus on visual composition, length, long takes and concise dialog. Bèla Tarr's dark and tender vision of life in a remote provincial town is filmed in black and white, contains 39 long takes during a runtime of 225 minutes, is told through long monologues and concentrated dialog, uses natural sounds and has an unforgettable instrumental theme song composed by the directors longtime companion Mihàly Vig. This theme song and the refined black and white photography which was created by four photographers, evokes the collective state of mind of the citizens in the town and elevates the powerful moods which becomes a large character within this skillfully structured film. "Werckmeister Harmonies" an adaptation of a novel called "The Melancholy Of Resistance" which was written by Làszlò Krazsnahorkai in 1989 and the movie title refers to Andreas Wercmeister (1645-1706), a composer from the Baroque era and a musical theorist. It is a chronologically narrated character study about a man who's faith is immensely challenged when he begins to realize what is actually happening to the human kind he so firmly believes in. The story written by Bèla Tarr and Làszlò Krazsnahorkai follows the main character during the course of one eventful day as he walks through the streets of his hometown looking for signs that will confirm his believes. The caring and childishly curious Janus is brought to life by German actor Lars Rudolph who appeared in Hal Hartley's "Flirt" (1995) and Tom Tykwer's "The Princess and the Warrior" (2000). With a mysterious face that expresses a string of emotions and a subtly underplayed performance, he creates a rare and intriguing character. I consider this slow-paced fictional drama as a small masterpiece that communicates it's message with conviction and tells a credible story that is not hard to follow, but not always easy to watch. Bèla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky's directing is commendable, their realized vision is magnificent, the acting is overall convincing, the opening scene is a striking example of cinematic art and what eventually puts all the pieces together and pointedly contrasts the common feelings of sadness that imprisons the souls of this film, is Hungarian composer, poet and songwriter Mihàly Vig`s spiritual music.… Expand

This movie is aggressively pretentious and tedious. If you want to watch a contemplative film, watch Stalker by Tarkovsky instead. "I despise stories, as they mislead people into believing that something has happened." -Bela Tarr

Rest assured, Mr. Tarr, no one will be mislead into believe anything has happened in Werckmeister Harmonies.