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Deleted member 23558
God make my neurotransmitters great inc
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Satantango’s cinematography could be described in one word- “ horrific indifference”. Each character does not have a solidity to himself that establishes him/her as the axis mundi of the world but is rather a fleeting insect that spins webs in the moonlight and rolls in the mud like a pig before decaying into mud that stays silent forever. When a character enters the frame it is often the background filled with mud, marshy grounds, decrepit houses and deafening silence that exists first and remains even after the character has left it. Even in cloistered spaces like the backroom of a bar — it is the grain sacks and wine bottles which provide a crispiness to the shot that draws our attention more than the character himself whose slow, deliberative and oftentimes-drunken motion that helps in drawing away attention from him to the environment that surrounds him. This horrific indifference to the events that occur through first of all, the haunting emptiness of the background, minimal to no dialogue and the mounting emptiness that gnaws at us as we watch the indifference neither be resolved nor change in any way. In a world of flux and decay, this indifference seems to be the only thing that is constant. By presenting us the indifference in a way preceding the “real events” that occur such as the cat being poisoned to death or Estike’s suicide, we have this haunting reality cloud all events fixing them in time and simultaneously rendering them non-isomorphic to any transcendent, even semantic meaning.
Time thus is first and slowly brought away from “ human time” (Dasein )— technical time as Ellul would call it and into the Heideggerian notion of time as the sand-clock slowly dripping down until the cells reach their Hayflick limit. What is worse than the spiritually bereft, pessimistic and slovenly drunkards that occupy film time is this indifference that bears no resolution. Even the existence of a religious figure who proselytizes to the townsmen in the bar is a mockery that the spiders relish as they continue to weave their webs- an immense alleluia lost into endless space and lost there..
Estike who tortures the cat, suffers from this same disease that inflicts the townspeople without them knowing it. The cat reflective of the learned helplessness of the town members (also echoed in the officer’s constant reiteration of the need for Order without judicial authority) and also the cows which saunter away from the camera shot without any particular sense of purpose radiate the disillusion of there being no “Big Other” and therefore no sense of justice or meaning. The scene where Estike peers into the bar where a tango is taking place is one of the most depressing scenes in cinema history. Shielded from the outside world and its horrors the towns folk are finally enjoying themselves -getting up to antics ,some dancing, some judging, some just watching satisfied until each one finally succumbs to drunken sleep.. and the spiders still weave. The haunting shot of the open area beside the cavernous room that Estike tortures the cat in is in my opinion,also the ultimate tonality of the 7 hour movie that crawls and slumbers at times (for a reason) before it reaches this scene. The haunting meows that reflect off the cavernous walls to no response from the outside consisting of barren fields and drizzles which stunt its sounds is similar in affect to Christ’s cries of Lamma Sabacthhani on the cross to the Father who had forsaken his Son( primarily from a Christian perspective):
“The stillness of Contemplation is allowed in billions of woeful cries,
So astonishingly simultaneous and in unison,
Each and every second,
They defuse each other in such a perfect manner,
Equaling the most inscrutable of all
Silences”
Estike before proceeding to torture and poison her cat
Kieślowski however, who directed the Polish anthology miniseries-Dekalog distinguishes himself from Bela Tarr’s nihilism in that whilst sharing the same pessimistic overtones and tragic sense of loss and pain;also allows “The Big Other”-God to seep through the crevices of modern day environments which to someone like Mircea Eliade would have been considered profane and not fit for religious experience. Although Dekalog deals more with “ human time”- not merely out of a sense of respect for “ non-human(Divine?) time” , events take on a significance that is more traditional in aspect. There is a seeming continuity of events however less significant that culminate in the “Apokatastatis Panton”(restoration of all) ;here it is primarily the re-establishment of the moral law in the form of the ten commandments in urbane ,day-to-day existence takes center stage.
Most notably, in Dekalog-1 we find Pavel, an innocent yet bright child brought up by his atheist father who subscribes to rationalistic materialism . Pavel’s first encounter of death in the form of a dog frozen to death creates turmoil in his soul which he seeks resolution for. His father who although loves him very much, considers it prudent to tell him the facts as it is: “ the heart stops pumping blood and then you die”. “What lives on ?”,Pavel asks, and his dad replies “ memories of you and what you have done.” His aunt whom he seeks help to gives him the Christian version of the story which Pavel finds much more satisfying.
However as the film moves on we see traces of events which are not of much significance in of themselves but considered in totality ,presage the tragic end of the film. For example ,there is a frozen milk bottle , a spectral image of Pavel running in school grounds , winter snow and camera shots of the frozen pool where the final events of the film take place. Contra Bella Tarr,Kieślowski does not give in to the hopelessness that serves as motif for almost all of Bella Tarr’s films in one way or the other but seeks to rescue God in the form of the Holy Spirit (icy winds which can be heard all throughout Dekalog 1- omnipotent and ever-working)
It may now be a time to step back and ask if we would rather prefer a reasonable compact between Man and God or a sort of Divine Frenzy that seeks to overthrow God to situate Man as ruler and ordainer. Bella Tarr’s films shows that this rarely works and that Man cannot tame Chaos by himself. However, Bella Tarr also thinks God is and remains dead. Kieślowski who remained Catholic all his life however seems to think not all hope is lost. Although the icy winds lash against writhing bodies and homeless men light fires to survive and brave the cold, at the end it is the icy heart itself that seems to melt to Grace. Is Kieślowski salvaging what hope he can amidst the endless horrors that plague our world, or is he primarily an aesthetician who considers it more beautiful that such horrors exist primarily to glorify God?
Is the Moral Law just a scapegoat that he uses to bring about the tragic sense of beauty? Wasn’t Tolkien and other 20th century Catholic writers much the same?, all that is beautiful will be irrevocably destroyed- leaving behind but a strange sense of melancholy. In the end perhaps it’s only a matter of taste.
Time thus is first and slowly brought away from “ human time” (Dasein )— technical time as Ellul would call it and into the Heideggerian notion of time as the sand-clock slowly dripping down until the cells reach their Hayflick limit. What is worse than the spiritually bereft, pessimistic and slovenly drunkards that occupy film time is this indifference that bears no resolution. Even the existence of a religious figure who proselytizes to the townsmen in the bar is a mockery that the spiders relish as they continue to weave their webs- an immense alleluia lost into endless space and lost there..
Estike who tortures the cat, suffers from this same disease that inflicts the townspeople without them knowing it. The cat reflective of the learned helplessness of the town members (also echoed in the officer’s constant reiteration of the need for Order without judicial authority) and also the cows which saunter away from the camera shot without any particular sense of purpose radiate the disillusion of there being no “Big Other” and therefore no sense of justice or meaning. The scene where Estike peers into the bar where a tango is taking place is one of the most depressing scenes in cinema history. Shielded from the outside world and its horrors the towns folk are finally enjoying themselves -getting up to antics ,some dancing, some judging, some just watching satisfied until each one finally succumbs to drunken sleep.. and the spiders still weave. The haunting shot of the open area beside the cavernous room that Estike tortures the cat in is in my opinion,also the ultimate tonality of the 7 hour movie that crawls and slumbers at times (for a reason) before it reaches this scene. The haunting meows that reflect off the cavernous walls to no response from the outside consisting of barren fields and drizzles which stunt its sounds is similar in affect to Christ’s cries of Lamma Sabacthhani on the cross to the Father who had forsaken his Son( primarily from a Christian perspective):
“The stillness of Contemplation is allowed in billions of woeful cries,
So astonishingly simultaneous and in unison,
Each and every second,
They defuse each other in such a perfect manner,
Equaling the most inscrutable of all
Silences”
Estike before proceeding to torture and poison her cat
Kieślowski however, who directed the Polish anthology miniseries-Dekalog distinguishes himself from Bela Tarr’s nihilism in that whilst sharing the same pessimistic overtones and tragic sense of loss and pain;also allows “The Big Other”-God to seep through the crevices of modern day environments which to someone like Mircea Eliade would have been considered profane and not fit for religious experience. Although Dekalog deals more with “ human time”- not merely out of a sense of respect for “ non-human(Divine?) time” , events take on a significance that is more traditional in aspect. There is a seeming continuity of events however less significant that culminate in the “Apokatastatis Panton”(restoration of all) ;here it is primarily the re-establishment of the moral law in the form of the ten commandments in urbane ,day-to-day existence takes center stage.
Most notably, in Dekalog-1 we find Pavel, an innocent yet bright child brought up by his atheist father who subscribes to rationalistic materialism . Pavel’s first encounter of death in the form of a dog frozen to death creates turmoil in his soul which he seeks resolution for. His father who although loves him very much, considers it prudent to tell him the facts as it is: “ the heart stops pumping blood and then you die”. “What lives on ?”,Pavel asks, and his dad replies “ memories of you and what you have done.” His aunt whom he seeks help to gives him the Christian version of the story which Pavel finds much more satisfying.
However as the film moves on we see traces of events which are not of much significance in of themselves but considered in totality ,presage the tragic end of the film. For example ,there is a frozen milk bottle , a spectral image of Pavel running in school grounds , winter snow and camera shots of the frozen pool where the final events of the film take place. Contra Bella Tarr,Kieślowski does not give in to the hopelessness that serves as motif for almost all of Bella Tarr’s films in one way or the other but seeks to rescue God in the form of the Holy Spirit (icy winds which can be heard all throughout Dekalog 1- omnipotent and ever-working)
It may now be a time to step back and ask if we would rather prefer a reasonable compact between Man and God or a sort of Divine Frenzy that seeks to overthrow God to situate Man as ruler and ordainer. Bella Tarr’s films shows that this rarely works and that Man cannot tame Chaos by himself. However, Bella Tarr also thinks God is and remains dead. Kieślowski who remained Catholic all his life however seems to think not all hope is lost. Although the icy winds lash against writhing bodies and homeless men light fires to survive and brave the cold, at the end it is the icy heart itself that seems to melt to Grace. Is Kieślowski salvaging what hope he can amidst the endless horrors that plague our world, or is he primarily an aesthetician who considers it more beautiful that such horrors exist primarily to glorify God?
Is the Moral Law just a scapegoat that he uses to bring about the tragic sense of beauty? Wasn’t Tolkien and other 20th century Catholic writers much the same?, all that is beautiful will be irrevocably destroyed- leaving behind but a strange sense of melancholy. In the end perhaps it’s only a matter of taste.
