Cinematheque: Premiere Showcase

Director: Béla Tarr, Hungary, 2011, 35mm, 146 minutes, subtitled. In 1889, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the merciless beating of a horse by a hansom cab driver, an event that is credited with triggering the philosopher’s final descent into madness. Reunited with his regular collaborators, including writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, composer Mihaly Vig and actress Erika Bok, Tarr frames the aftermath of these events in his trademark extra-long takes and high-contrast black-and-white.