Satantango
d. Bela Tarr, 1994
Without a doubt, the experience of watching Bela Tarr's Satantango in a half-empty auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston ensures it is one of the greatest and most revelatory films of all time. As self-contained as its expansive, seven-hour narrative is, the film to me is more of a shocking exploration of what it means to be in a theatre for that long, as well as one of the most perverse experiments ever staged. Tarr's alternately bleak and beautiful imagery is never dull, and, towards the end of the film, I was hoping Satantango's extremely long takes would never end.
