This film is directed by a Hungarian director by the name of Bela Tarr. The film's opening sequence and scenes are so brilliant that I was thinking this film would be my favorite of all-time. However, those scenes leave viewers with a bad first impression. Not to say the film is bad, it just does not achieve that God-like cinematic experience really ever again throughout the film. When the story actually starts to happen, the film takes a turn for the worst which makes no sense to me, but it does. The film has a somewhat unified look, but it feels kind of uneven probably since it was 4 years in the making and it had 6 cinematographers. The beginning sequence with the eclipse rivals the jester in the rain sequence in Andrei Rublev. In all honesty, I feel conflicted about giving this a film a three or four. I am going to give it a four cuz there are some scenes of such extreme beauty that it overweights the flaws the film has.
Pros:
-Beginning is amazing and as close to flawless I have ever seen
-Great black and white cinematography
-Pretty good story
-Some amazingly long shots
-Only 41 shots through the whole two and half hours
-Some scenes of extreme beauty
Cons:
-When the story starts going, it kind of loses it effect
-Doesn't it feel as unified as I would have liked
-Beginning sequence/take kind of sets too high of a standard for the film
-Old man nudity, but it is used in such a way that is heart-breaking
-Some of the shots/takes are too long and usually of something very repetitive like the marching of men or just simply walking
Overall: A flawed film with some flawless scenes.
**** out of ****.
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