Werckmeister Harmonies (Criterion) 04/24 Blu-ray (Rental)

This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown time in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince—arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens that builds inexorably toward violence. In thirty-nine hypnotic long takes engraved in ghostly black and white, auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky conjure an apocalyptic vision of dreamlike dread and fathomless beauty. DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Béla Tarr, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Family Nest (1979), Tarr’s first feature film New interview with Tarr by film critic Scott Foundas Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim