Directed by Béla Tarr. With Hédi Temessy, Erika Bodnár, Miklós B. Székely
Hungary 1983, 35mm, color, 120 min. Hungarian with English subtitles
Considered a turning point from Tarr’s early social realism to his later precisely formal work, Almanac of Fall elliptically discloses the shifting relationships between five inhabitants of a house through a chain of theatrical tête-à-têtes. Their philosophical quandaries and deferred dreams coil into bitter circles of duplicitous manipulations that fuel eruptions of violence and underhanded exit strategies. Lit by expressionistic, lurid colors and followed by the mysterious gaze of a meandering, equally conspiratorial camera, the cursed spirits seem destined to reenact their base desires and vengeful patterns in a disorienting purgatory of opulent decay.