Macbeth

This is really more of a live performance record and a curio than a significant element in Tarr's filmography. It's almost entirely composed of one shot, but as the TV production is shot on hand-held video, you can't expect anything approaching the great visual care of the director's later films, particularly once he found his mature style with "Damnation" and "Satantango." The text is a drastic if effective-enough condensation of Shakespeare's play, the acting is decent, and it's interesting to see the lead in this role--I'd mostly seen him previously in Miklos Jansco films, where he certainly got a lot of practice performing for an endlessly moving, in-your-face camera. Still, this production just isn't technically accomplished or atmospheric enough to be a memorable interpretation of the story, and it has no special angle beyond the one-shot novelty. (There is a much shorter 2nd shot, but I guess I blinked and missed the editorial transition.) For Bela Tarr enthusiasts, it's a footnote worth seeing...once. As far as screen "Macbeths" go, it's just one more pretty-good version--I don't think there's ever been a truly great one, not even Orson Welles' or Polanski's.