Damnation - English subtitled
Existential film noir by Béla Tarr (Sátántangó, The Turin Horse) about a ragged man who chases a nightclub singer in a dreary Hungarian town.
The noirest of film noirs, DAMNATION marked a crucial turning point in the career of visionary Béla Tarr. Set largely in a smoky nightclub – appropriately named the Titanik – in a coal-mining outpost drenched by incessant rain, its bleak streets populated with stray dogs, DAMNATION combines the aura of erotic obsession and abasement in von Sternberg’s THE BLUE ANGEL with the apocalyptic tone of Andrei Tarkovsky’s STALKER. A hard-drinking Titanik regular carries a torch for the bar’s cruel, Nico-like chanteuse, who enjoys humiliating her desperate ex-lover. (source: www.tiff.net)
Béla Tarr, Hungary, 1988, 116 min. Hungarian spoken, English subtitles.
With Miklós Székely B., Vali Kerekes, Gyula Pauer, György Cserhalmi, Hédi Temessy.