The first shot of the opening is the introduction to the entire film. Janos instructs several drunks to simulate the movement of celestial bodies, depicting the eternal harmony of the universe with poetic sentences. The solar eclipse suddenly appeared, and at that moment, life on the earth fell into fear; then the moon moved away, the darkness dissipated, and all things regained their breath as if they were saved. Janos' pronunciation and gestures exude fascinating magic. The soundtrack of Mihaly Vig, Bella Tal’s royal soundtrack, touches the heart with every note, and the simple, pure, and endlessly looping rhythm brings the viewers in. A state of meditation, as if being in a quiet universe. Then, Janos hummed with the melody of the music, intoxicated by this slow-moving system. The light and the rotation of the camera created a quiet and remote atmosphere, revealing the awe of creation and the silence of the tiny lives in the vast galaxy. In this bizarre and fascinating picture, the lens is almost perfect: when the solar eclipse appears and the sun’s brilliance disappears, the lens moves up slowly while zooming out. In this way, the perspective of the film is changed from what the protagonist leads. The viewer's eyes move to a higher overlooking position, as if God's eyes are watching everything that happens. The wonderful thing is that this transition of artistic conception is nothing more than a slight shift of the camera position during continuous shooting with a long lens. At this time, the tavern owner suddenly interrupted the performance, drove Janos away, and brought the character and the audience to reality. Janos said: "It's not over yet." This sentence reveals the story that happened afterwards.
Janos is a humble little person. He lives in peace and keeps himself, working at night to distribute newspapers, and taking care of the respected and reclusive musician Eszter dutifully. He lives in poverty, but he does not hesitate to spend money to watch whales, which shows that he has hope. And faith. The footage of Janos escaping into the night shows his compassion, reverence and hope. His humble figure slowly crossed the darkness, as if walking across the secluded river of history. The image shows extreme loneliness, revealing a sad sense of history and a heavy sense of destiny. Here again shows the director's skill in the use of light and lens scheduling. The lens is repeatedly zoomed out until the shaking figure of the character becomes a point in the dark night, which seems to indicate that the faint light of faith will eventually be annihilated in the deep black hole of history. The lens slowly lowered as it moved backwards, causing a large area of darkness to surround a small area of high light next to Janos who was walking. The meaning of this scene is very rich. Every human individual is a bleak light spot in the cold night of history, but no matter how weak the light is, the darkness cannot swallow it all (the next scene will be switched to the next day Janos facing the morning sun). Walking again significantly implies the continuation of hope). Throughout the length of the long shot, black-and-white images and thematic music reproduction make the language of the movie go straight to the bones.
The next day, Eszter recorded his own monologue in front of the microphone, which was apocalyptic. In fact, Werckmeister’s melody theory does not break the harmony of the so-called “pure temperament”, on the contrary, it is precisely to correct the dissonant phonemes in the “pure temperament” chord and create a more melodic interval. From this point of view, the author is more inclined to understand the movie title Werckmeiste Harmonies as people seeking order and harmony in change. Eszter believes that we should return to the era of Pythagoras, but there are inevitable contradictions between this ideal and the group, race, and society. Bi's values the value of people, encourages a positive attitude towards life, and advocates the harmonious development of relationships between people in the various systems of families, groups, organizations, countries, and even international alliances. In fact, under the system, how to deal with both as an individual and a group of people, this topic has been naturally integrated into the development of the plot as the story progresses. Exploring the relationship among individuals, groups, and systems, as well as their respective positions in the course of history and future social development, are the main thrust of this movie.
Janos and Eszter, a young man, an elder, they seem to be disadvantaged individuals outside the class. But in fact, there is a difference between the two: Eszter has seen the essence of all the problems and revealed the truth, but he has no other ideas, only longing to return to music, and concentrate on researching and creating without being disturbed. And Janos still has faith, his heart is pure and simple, with simple and naive wishes. In the middle of the film, the two separated after completing the task assigned by Eszter's ex-wife on the condition of threatening to destroy his life. The camera gradually lifted from the parallel position, watching them each step on a fork in the road. The lens is a distant view, but it enhances the fullness and expressiveness of the picture. Eszter, in a helpless and compromised state, has no intention of listening to the complaints and complaints of the villagers. He is exhausted physically and mentally, and only longs to return to his isolated residence; Janos, who went to be on a business trip, also breathed a sigh of relief, and his life could eventually return to the peace of the past. , Although boring but stable. However, at the end of the two roads, only a fateful tragedy awaits them-Janos becomes a mentally ill after being hit, and Eszter's home is occupied by his ex-wife and the police chief.
The scene where the two children went crazy implies the turmoil before the riots, while the plot of the police chief drunk and convulsed portrays the other two groups, namely the numb person (the chief of police) within the system and the outsider (the ex-wife of Eszter) who pursue interests.
The two square dramas before and after show people's perplexity. No direction leads to blind actions, and ignorance brings innocent sacrifices. Before the ransack of the hospital, the director used a very long lens to portray a group of resentful people. The lens moved back and forth and moved up and down. People's breathing is rapid and their pace is firm, which highlights the strength of people as individuals. Here again, I point out the core of the director's concern: undoubtedly, humans are the most vital in the universe, and the only creatures that truly possess and know how to use power, but we can't help but ask, how should human power be used? Where is it used? How to use this power to defend oneself, fight, and revolution? And then to change and create instead of subverting and destroying. Obviously, under various systems and systems, the blind burst of brute force has caused the people themselves to become poor historical victims in vain. This tragedy reached its culmination when the rioters witnessed the awkward old man in the bathtub. The director placed a dazzling incandescent light to brighten the entire space where the old man was, forming a strong contrast with the black foreground. Having withstood the flogging of the times and the shackles and torture of the fate, the dying old man's frail body is naked before the innocent abusers who are also undergoing the above-mentioned experience. I believe that this is not a ruthless criticism, but a hot one. Concern. After the turmoil was over, the camera recorded the rioters dragging their bodies through the corridor in turn. The high-contrast black and white images made the characters form a silhouette effect, vividly reflecting the image of them as victims. Afterwards, the camera moved down and shot down one by one with the decayed bodies and slowly moving heavy steps, once again sketching the group image of the "thug" becoming the final victim.
Looking back on history, from the "Prague Spring", the "Hungarian October Movement", the "Poznan Incident" to the "Eastern European Upheaval", are the outbreaks of revolutions and the evolution of political patterns a historical progress? Is it the so-called historical inevitability to repeatedly terminate the existing system or order by force? Since the correctness of the new system cannot be determined, the revolution is meaningless, and it can be said to be a failure. However, does this failure stem from the errors of the ideological system or the limitations of the class?
When individuals converge into groups and people upgrade to people, they do not know how to rely on their own power to control their own destiny. The female workers of the printing factory were uneasy and fearful about the upcoming revolution; the wife of Janos landlord expressed confusion and concern about her husband’s behavior; the obese man in the restaurant showed a puppet-like body dominated by desire while intimacy with the woman while eating; the circus The boss of the group refused to perform for fear of trouble; his assistant wanted to go it alone with the prince for financial gain; the seemingly noble prince was nothing but a shriveled skin that was manipulated and used. As stated in the film: "Everything is an illusion, everything is nothingness, and everything is meaningless."
The prince who acts as a preacher cannot act as a leader in reality to guide people, leaving the whales reduced to martyrs after faith is stifled. At the end of the film, the truck compartment opens up in the middle of the devastated square, and the whale's naked and decaying body collapses into a mud image. The mystery is gone, and all that is left are the tears of whales-God's tears for humans, and tears of the director's rational attention. As an old man who has witnessed a tragic history, Eszter once again witnessed the tragic reality. He looked back at the whale as he was leaving, and the picture stagnated. At this point, this short episode that has failed to find a way out at the expense of sacrifice will once again become a forgotten history.
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