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In contrast, almost opposed to the most common uses of modern cinematography, which pursues an accumulation, an acceleration in the forms of presentation (speed images in sequence, in the dialogues...) to activate the viewer's attention, Bela Tarr's cinema adds to the current contemplative, slow, flat-sequence, minimalist (though i don't like the expression) in more than one direction, the filmmakers called "cult" as Angelopoulos, Sokurov, Kiarostami, Bartas... The latter is a kind of language hardly supports the indifference or impartiality of the spectator, it can cause so much attraction and rejection, depending on the profile and tastes of the observer.
I having said that and being the first movie see Tarr, i stand at one of the rare "intermediate" in terms of positioning. It is clear from the opening sequence of "The Man from London" or the film hooks you or bores you to death, but his style is not indifferent. It also seems true that exerts a strange kind of fascination, even hypnotic trance, dragging, pushing to keep looking even when nothing seems to happen not in action and that all of it is displayed in real time. But his images are so be careful the slight camera movements, as well accompanied loudly that make force the viewer to appreciate that behind there is a very elaborate form of expression, genuine, and as personal as only the great authors offer.
The protagonist, Maloin is a simple and naive man, with a life very tight, even claustrophobic in a small town where nothing ever seems to happen. It has been used to not think, not feel, not excited, no doubt, and not (want to) know. Until one night in his job as a switchman at a seaside railway station, witnesses a tragic fact that suddenly break your daily routine.
In this free adaptation of the novel "L'homme de Londres" the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, Tarr shows his concern for human alienation, the impaired ability of critical analysis and the annihilation of the initiative and eagerness to learn and understand at the hands of a materialism as surreptitious as wild. For him, contemporary society made a bleak picture which has moved from passive accommodating to loss of consciousness of what is the essence of being human. Everything is very well reflected in their relations to different people, moreover, take a few physical spaces, which reveals the will of the maker of immersing them in a kind of impasse, in a distressing monotony of existence.
Tarr said this film has been more difficult to carry out a production that lasted for over two years, burdened by a long hiatus due to suicide in February 2005, the French producer Humbert Balsan, who the film is dedicated. Even at this point, this is cinema-cinema, look where you want to deal with the just reserves and without fear.
6/10
