Béla Tarr’s quest for cinematic perfection made him my ideal, impossible mentor
The Son of Saul director recalls how getting his first job as assistant to the austere master was a hard but inspiring lesson in the most ambitious kind of movie-making
TL;DR
- The author met Béla Tarr in 2004 while working as an assistant on his film 'The Man from London'.
- Tarr's filmmaking style involved long, uninterrupted takes, shot in black and white, aiming to unify space, characters, and time.
- The production of 'The Man from London' was complex and fraught with difficulties, involving a multilingual cast and a challenging European co-production.
- The author learned the importance of artistic integrity and the difference between compromise and 'compromission' from Tarr.
- The tragedy of producer Humbert Balsan's suicide during the film's production underscored the link between Tarr's art and reality.
- The author was inspired by Tarr's ability to capture the humanity of the forgotten, as seen in the filming of 'Prologue' with homeless people in Budapest.
- Tarr instilled a rebellious spirit in his collaborators, encouraging them to question cinematic conventions.