As wearying as the film becomes in its long, bleak sequences, its uniquely cinematic and emotion-charged experience makes the effort worthwhile.

| May 21, 2014

Six years after the 7-1/2-hour Satan's Tango, Magyar maverick Bela Tarr makes a stunning feature return with "Werckmeister Harmonies," another hypnotic meditation on popular demagogy and mental manipulation that's a snap at 145 minutes.

| Oct 5, 2007

Bela Tarr's style seems to be an attempt to regard his characters with great intensity and respect, to observe them without jostling them, to follow unobtrusively as they move through their worlds, which look so ordinary and are so awesome, like ours.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 14, 2007

A chilling, mesmerizing, intense account of ethnic cleansing (in spirit if not in letter) from Hungarian master Bela Tarr.

| Sep 14, 2007

Over two hours and 20 minutes, not much actually happens, and Tarr creates a mood so lulling that even the rare scenes of dialogue can be hard to follow. But Werckmeister's standout moments are searing like few others in film history.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 11, 2006

Weird, wonderful, witty and unsettling.

| Jan 26, 2006

For once, understanding is less important than experiencing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2003

This will be a tough watch for many: an uncompromisingly difficult and severe experience. But I found it unique, mesmeric and sublime.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 20, 2003

Werckmeister Harmonies exerts a peculiarly powerful spell.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 15, 2003

Tarr's true achievement is to attain the condition of silence, and of bottomless, awesomely inscrutable nightmare.

| Apr 1, 2003

Using long takes, sensuous camera movements and the mournful beauty of Mihaly Vig's score, Tarr offers in Werckmeister Harmonies an indelible statement on loneliness and spiritual thirst.

| Feb 1, 2002

An unabashed art film of real daring and power.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 27, 2001

Rudolph is superb as the film's taciturn protagonist.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 16, 2001

Tarr's precise yet effortless command for the long take is so transcendent it suggests the presence of God.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 15, 2001

A totally sustained immersion in the magisterially bleak, voluptuously monochromatic, undeniably beautiful universe of muddy villages and cell-like rooms.

Full Review | Oct 15, 2001

Mysterious, poetic and allusive.

| Oct 15, 2001