Bella Tal's seven-and-a-half-hour "Satan's Tango" was filmed in 1994. The impact of the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union on Eastern European countries will not be repeated here. The film should tell the story of a small farm in a remote part of Hungary facing the disintegration of human fragility due to social changes in this context. The old can't last, but the new has not yet arrived. In this blank period, the evil in human nature is particularly striking against the background of social disorder. It is especially like making a cup of strong wine for Satan and letting him dance freely after drinking it. Tango.
This film, which established its base color from the very beginning, with tones of black, white and gray, long and slow shots: a herd of cows walks in circles in a muddy field under a gloomy sky, gnawing at the few green grass , occasionally a low-pitched moo echoed, and a few restless bulls climbed onto the cow's back... The opening shot is seven or eight minutes long, and there is no place it swept that can be called beautiful, you Immediately felt that this was an extremely desolate and desolate world. Walking in such a world, it was no surprise that pessimistic thoughts suddenly emerged, and it was not surprising that life was not easy. Then, the camera slowly passed the almost dilapidated farm house. In the endless continuous autumn rain, it seemed that the heaven and the earth were crying uncontrollably. Even the pigs and dogs trampled on the food in the muddy water, and all kinds of life undoubtedly fell to the minimum of survival. What is terrifying is that it is so degenerate that there is no unsatisfactory human environment, there is no school, and the church is eight kilometers away. We also noticed later that even the church is about to collapse, and the ruins are tossing in the wind and rain. The human soul loses its protective barrier and is completely exposed to the devil's coveting.
The only place on the farm where people can gather is a tavern with drunkards sitting idle, and men and women coming to have fun. This public place is also a transmission place for all kinds of rumors. It is said that there are two people (the released prisoner, but also a liar) is on the way. They are not good people and are plotting to steal everyone's money.
On this abandoned island far from the city, men are conspiring to get some money to escape, drink alcohol, peep, and do all kinds of dirty things, while women shamelessly cheat or prostitute. Human existence exudes rudeness on this animal level. With a turbid aura, without seeing the light of the soul, it is really easy for Satan to make waves in the world.
Satan's covetousness culminates in the second part of the film. This part made me feel chest tight and breathless and sigh again and again. The daughter of a prostitute, a little girl who was about seven or eight years old was ignored by her mother and deceived by her brother. When she saw a man enter her mother's house, she sat outside the door with a cat in her arms, I think She still has a cat to love. Unexpectedly, the next step is the process of her abusing the cat. It took more than 10 minutes to film this process. The psychological description is very delicate and extremely terrifying, until she forcibly poisoned the cat with rat poison. die. In the pouring rain, she hugged a dead cat and went to the tavern outside the window to peep at the boring and shameless scenes of men and women who were messing around with the world. Mrs. Kronner, who was described by men as having a pair of big and beautiful nipples, was Shaking her huge breasts and getting caught up in the men's scramble, yeah, a slutty woman stirred up a pool of water, and lust is the last aphrodisiac for desperate people.
The film uses a few minutes of long shots to shoot the little girl hugging the dead cat through the muddy swamp and walking alone on the vast and boundless field. She is completely desperate in this world, and she is completely unable to reconcile. Finally, she came to a large tree. Under the tree, he ate the rat poison left by the poisonous cat, and lay peacefully under the tree with the dead cat, closing his eyes and waiting to die. This is the climax of tragedy, and it shows how Satan awakens and grows in the human heart and finally devours, even so, she dreams of reaching heaven when she dies. The fragility of human nature comes to this point, making people feel unbearable pain.
This is a long, lyrical poem that is made of suffering and sinking. You can't help but cry when you read it.
I noticed that when the movie came to this point, the 40-odd spectators almost held their breaths, silent, and a huge sadness shrouded the movie-watching scene.
Yes, human nature can be tempered to be better, and it can also be tempered to be more evil. The incredible abandonment of following the crowd is shocking. Finally, they were leaving the farm to find new possibilities. It is also a long shot to show their departure, just like their Exodus, it is another hard and long journey... Passing through the abandoned church, there is the longest background music played by the accordion and their close-up. faces, as if they were somehow shocked and inspired. The night birds are cooing, they are lying down with their clothes on, what will be waiting for them?
The rain kept falling like endless tears. And what these farm workers yearn for most is to soak their feet in hot water at night. This group of people who are helpless by fate makes people see the extreme weakness of human nature. What's even more helpless is that people are still full of suspicion, and in the search for a new way, they can't trust themselves, and they can only arrange the future through Irimias, a prisoner, a liar, and a poet who has only been released from prison. Poems float and reverberate as subtitles, but deep poetry is sometimes poison. Fortaki, the lover of the big-titted lady Kronner, is carefully guarded by the liar Iremias, and the Exodus of this group of poor people also declares bankruptcy.
In the description of the police, they concentrated almost all the bad words: cowardly, stupid, vulnerable, cowardly, smelly, pig and so on.
The doctor who spied on others, while recording the cheating he witnessed, lived with drunken anesthesia, and he moved like a fat pig soaked in alcohol to maintain his suffering. When he came back from the hospital, he found that all the people on the farm had left, there was no more misconduct by Mrs. Kronner, the whole farm was dead, the ground was frozen, he heard the death knell, he sealed the windows, In the dead room, he muttered to himself, waiting for death to come.
The film's handling of camera shots, background music and voiceovers is very philosophical, especially the original minimalist style that directly presents the dilapidation of life to the audience. , the rumbling monotonous sound of the fleeing wheel reverberates on the vast muddy field, plus the accordion accompaniment (the only background music) for a few moments, these monotonous sounds are highly expressive, rendering the unreal of time and space, and the fragility of the individual. And small, especially moving. isn't it? There is no end to the long road, and the wilderness is endless. Where can they go?
The shock brought by the long shots is truly unparalleled. The liar and his party use long shots to show their gloomy backs as they walk around the town. Behind them is the garbage rolled up by the wind. Satan travels with his irresistible madness and domineering.
The film is divided into three parts, and the connection between different parts uses the method of stream of consciousness, and the same shot is interspersed and connected at different times of the film. The close-up lens is very well used. The huge facial close-up and the slow lens advance make people see the helplessness in the depths of human nature. Indeed, the inertia of the evil of human nature will bloom in time is beyond our naive imagination.
Here, you can't help but admit that Satan's tango dance is absolutely amazing.
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