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Sátántangó [1994]


RRP: £29.99
Our Price: £12.48 (subject to change)

I was like totaly awesome dude
Review date: 2008-09-09 Rating: 10 out of 10

I once went on a search for the longest film ever released and i stumbled upon this. At 7.5hours long it fitted the bill it's also black and white and in Hungarian.

So i bought it purely because it was 7.5hrs long, b&w and Hungarian. I just wanted to see if i could, i had no idea what the film was going to be like.

Once it arrived i waited until the mood was right to sit/lay down and watch as much as i could in one sitting. I was half expecting it to be some philosophical arty bull**** of a film, however, the film just sucked me in from the moment it started.

The imagery, characters and long shots are unlike anything else i've seen on film before. In short the film is stunning, it's not complicated, difficult to follow or arty farty film art house stuff. I watch at least once year during the winter when i have a cold or cant be bothered to get out of bed.

I'm proud to have this in my collection, It's a film that Hollywood cannot touch, it can never be remade into a 1.5hr abortion starring Nicolas Cage or some other so called 'actor'.

Satantango is one film that truly deserves the hype.
The funny thing is the dvd cover isn't plastered with "masterpiece" or "stunning" or other choice picked words from reviews that you've never read. Just as the Bible isn't plastered with "great read" or "epic life changing stories" or "based on a true events" all over it's cover nor should this be.

If you've read it this far then thanks for reading.

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Reviews


impatience is the only sin....
Review date: 2007-09-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

Currently my favourite film. Though it would no doubt bore the pants of someone with little patience or interest in the finer (if somewhat dirtier) habits of humanity. Beautifully shot (Tarkovsky influence).

Great viewing
Review date: 2007-04-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a great film to watch when you're doing something else. That isn't a joke or faint praise - how often have you looked for "something to put on" while you're surfing the net? I should know: I'm watching it now.

It's basically about a group of scumbags who are persuaded to leave their farm by a mysterious figure - but they leave behind an old, sick doctor.

It's very funny, full of gorgeous long tracking shots, and has amazing location footage. The music is lovely (reminds me of Tristram Cary) - a drunk party scene is simply outstanding.

The photography is beautiful - read other reviews as other people are more knowledgable than me about that sort of thing.

If you're at all interested in the premise (7+ hour film about drunks) - buy it, have fun and watch it over some beers, maybe over a couple of days. It isn't a difficult film to watch: it's great entertainment.

Mud, Rain & Alcohol
Review date: 2007-04-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

A collective farm in disarray. A messianic agitator. And lots of mud & rain. Yes, it's the infamous 7 hour movie, all in Bela Tarr's trademark style: arty black & white cinematography, long slow takes, tracking shots & zooms. The style recalls Tarkovsky but the sensibility is completely different - relentlessly downbeat, squalid & cynical, a bit like Aki Kaurismaki without the jokes. So you get a doctor drinking himself to death, a cat being tortured & a suicidal little girl taking rat poison - all depicted in slow real time takes. It's uncomfortable viewing not because it's boring but because it gets almost too intense.
This is definitely film making of the highest order with stunning images & a very clever interlocking narrative structure, but I found Satantango harder going than his earlier film Damnation. That film had a more focused setting, plot & characterisation whereas Satantango is rather weighed down with enigmatic surrealism & allegorical overtones. I hesitate to recommend Satantango - various criticisms could be levelled at the film & it is certainly not for the uninitiated, but if you know Bela Tarr's work (particularly if you enjoyed Werckmeister Harmonies) or have an interest in good old European art house cinema then you should get this DVD - it's a unique film for sure.
(Nice to see some of the other Amazon reviews here are complaining that the film is too short!)

A comment on running times ...
Review date: 2007-03-05 Rating: 8 out of 10

I saw a previous viewer had speculated about possible cuts in the film.

Given that PAL operates at 25 frames per second as opposed to film's 24 fps, one usually finds that the companies that produce PAL discs make no effort to reproduce a film's orginal running time and correctly pitched soundtrack. What this means is that a PAL transfer will typically run 4% faster than the original and its soundtrack will pitch upwards. As NTSC (usual for US discs) outputs at 29 frames a second, DVD production companies - if they source from an original print ... usually they just reproduce a PAL dvd or tape - are obliged to correct the film by various means to produce a watchable end product.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Janos Derzsi
Mihaly Vig
Miklos Szekely
Peter Berling
Erzsebet Gaal

Creators:
Peter Berling (Primary Contributor)
Janos Derzsi (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Artificial Eye
Manufacturer: Artificial Eye
EAN: 5021866329307
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 3
Format: Box set, Black & White, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2006-11-13
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Running time: 419 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1994
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Hungarian (Original Language)

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