First Look at New 4K Restoration of Satantango and Special Edition Blu-ray
Posted September 27, 2019 04:28 PM by Webmaster
U.S. label Alrbelos has provided us with an official domestic trailer for its new 4K restoration of Béla Tarr's Satantango (1994), starring János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos, and Mihály Vig.
Label description: One of the greatest achievements in recent art house cinema and a seminal work of "slow cinema," Sátántangó, based on the book by László Krasznahorkai, follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective living in a post-apocalyptic landscape after the fall of Communism who, on the heels of a large financial windfall, set out to leave their village. As a few of the villagers secretly conspire to take off with all of the earnings for themselves, a mysterious character, long thought dead, returns to the village, altering the course of everyone's lives forever.
Shot in stunning black-and-white by Gábor Medvigy and filled with exquisitely composed and lyrical long takes, Sátántangó unfolds in twelve distinct movements, alternating forwards and backwards in time, echoing the structure of a tango dance. Tarr's vision, aided by longtime partner and collaborator Ágnes Hranitzky, is enthralling and his portrayal of a rural Hungary beset by boozy dance parties, treachery, and near-perpetual rainfall is both transfixing and uncompromising. Sátántangó has been justly lauded by critics and audiences as a masterpiece and inspired none other than Susan Sontag to proclaim that she would be "glad to see it every year for the rest of [her] life".
Sátántangó is being restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by Arbelos in collaboration with The Hungarian Filmlab. The new restoration is slated for theatrical release in 2019, with a digital release and SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY TO FOLLOW.