A partial transcription of the Bela Tarr interview included as an extra on the DVD of Werckmeister Harmonies.

[Tarr is asked about Damnation]

There is a difficulty about what we really think to be a film. The question really is what is film for? It's been some time since we came to the conclusion that the film is not about telling or it's function is something very different, something else. So that we can get closer to people somehow; we can understand everyday life and that somehow we can understand human nature: why we are like who we are, how we commit our sins, how we betray one another and what interests lead us.

And that's how we found this rather simple, even primitive crime story which is really a banal story because this is the thing we can get furthest away from[….] It was [a matter of] getting away, of distancing ourselves from the story because we thought that the wall, the rain, the dogs have their own stories, and that these stories are more important than these so called human stories that we write.

We believe that apart from the main protagonists of the film there are other protagonists: scenery, the weather, time and locations have their own faces and play an important role in the story […]

[Asked how he discovered this use of time]

From the very beginning the way we handled time was different to other films first of all because we cut and edited the film differently most films are piece of 'information - edit', 'information – edit' – we didn't edit that way. We are paying no concern to internal, psychological processes and we concentrate on the physical being present of the actors that is why metacommunication is more important - in fact its more important than verbal communication – and from here it is only a short step from putting it in time and space.

[Asked whether he is making a special demand on the viewer]

No, I don't have special demands from the audience I believe that I regard the audience as partners perhaps a bit more grown up than I am myself. I believe that if we make films with more openness, fairness and honesty people watch films with their hearts and minds and they only believe their eyes and then they can understand what we do and it's quite a simple thing.

And it will be special and part of their lives, and after all that's all we want and perhaps that people that come into the movies they leave a bit different, a different person than when they come in, if not as a different person, with something more in their hearts. And if we get that result we are happy and satisfied; if you get closer to the people you see on the film if you get touched by the beauty of the destitute then we've reached something, we've achieved something.

[The interviewer says that Tarr's films aren't always about beauty, but portray ugly landscapes and ugly people. Tarr responds in English, with magnificent simplicity, refusing to extrapolate.]

This is my nation.

[How do you chose the people you work with?]

We always make sure that those people we invite to work with us they are actually our friends. We always try to make sure that they are not actors but personalities and they give their entire personality to the film and that they should be present. And this is a matter of confidence: that they give us something, that they trust us that we won't betray them; that in the end we won't break our promises[….] All the people who work with us are present as personalities, be it as professional actors, workers in a factory or independent actors.

[When you say this is my nation: is it the real Hungary to which he is referring, or the imaginary world he has made in his films? Does it relate to everyday reality?]

I believe that one is making the same film all through one's life. These are the various forms, the various stages of the very same film. It's not that we don't think or look further because all these films are after all different. Every time we try to get closer to a somewhat clearer style, to create something simpler, even more simple, and to try to give an even clearer picture of what is there in Hungary today because after all we are Hungarians and we very much hope that this can be deciphered and understood in every part of the world as well.

[Can his films be taken as a political allegories?]

I would like to make it clear: there are no allegories in any of my films. And there are no symbols, such metaphysical things are far from [the genre of film]. A film as a genre in itself is always something definite. Because that piece of instrument we call the lens can only record real things, there are no allegories. There are very simple and definite scenes in the film.

And we try to think about the quality of life, because everybody has just one single life. It does matter how they live that single life; it is important what the quality of their lives is. I don't regard anything with sancity apart from life itself. And that's why it does matter what we talk about in a film.

As far as politics is concerned, I think it's a dirty business and it's not the object of any normal piece of art. We would never make political films. We would like to do more than that.

[The interviewer says Tarr's films are full of mud and dirt, with people getting drunk and falling over. They're very much about the ugly real world.]

Yes, yes.

[The interviewer presses Tarr on this: Why people falling over drunk? Why the mud and dirt? Tarr responds in English, quickly and directly.]

This is the same question why we make a film about ugly people because this is our nation this is our people that's what I see.

[Tarr's now asked to explore the relationship between literature and film.]

Film by itself is quite a primitive language. It's made simpler by its definiteness by its being so concrete and that's why it's so exciting. It's always a challenge to do something with this kind of limited language. The writer Krasznahorkai always says how can you do anything with such limited options, with such limited tools? He's frustrated that we deal with cheap things. Film is a cheap show in the town market and it's a great thing we can develop that into something valuable something that will withstand time and can be watched in 10 or 20 years or more.

[Tarr explains how he works with Krasznahorkai – how his novels inspire Tarr and his friends to find (or build) suitable a locations (a 'reality'). Film and literature are different languages, Tarr insists again.]

… that reality [i.e., the reality of a location] must be ours and we make a film about our reality with his help and from here on we talk a different language.

[On his wife and editor, Agnes Hranitzky] She's present all through the making of the film. And she is coauthor and no decisions are made without her, partly because she really knows and understands things. We do work together we make the films together. And there is an everyday process of making these film with the preparations the shooting and the editing.

And there is another important member of the family and that's the composer [Mihaly Vig] with whom we've worked together for the past 15 years and without the composer the films wouldn't be what they are. About our relationship: he would go into the studio a month before the shooting takes place, would compose the music, give it to us and then we already use the music at the stage of shooting. So the music plays an equal role to the actors or the scenes or the story. And we trust him so much that we don't go there into the studio he composes the music and brings it to us.

It's very close and very profound; a very friendly relationship that has been shaped over the past 15 years. We don't have to talk about anything serious; we never talk about art, we never talk about philosophy, we don't discuss aesthetics, we always talk about very concrete practical issues.

[Asked about cinematographers]

It's always difficult thing because one is always in the hands of a cinematographer, and what we ask is a very difficult task, both in physical and professional terms. And it's always very difficult to find the right person; some don't live up to it; some don't have the time; some are talented but make mistakes elsewhere so it's very difficult to find the right person. And we are quite autocratic and we tell the cinematographer what to do […]

[Asked about his relationship to the film industry in Hungary]

We won't knock at the door of the film industry and ask permission to be let in. Because we felt that everything that was happening in the film industry was a lie and it was a very bad and cheap thing. We thought there's no point talking to and negotiating with these people; we thought we had to kick the door in and show them what life really is and we have to show people what real life is like because they hardly see it on the film.

And from then on it was quite simple. We thought that making films should be cheap; we should be able to create films with low budgets and they have to be be 16mm with handheld cameras with nonprofessional actors and with a lot of closeups so going straight into their faces show the faces and to tell what social problems we are facing. 

And as time went by that problems there are are not only social but ontological, and there are cosmic problems as well and then we found out that everything even the weather was bad and from then on there's nothing else to do but make it total [Tarr is laughing] and create a complete desperation and the more desperate we are the more hope there is. It's quite simple.

[Asked whether his films appeal to the young in Hungary]

We were always famous for showing people on the screen who weren't seen elsewhere or before. I think at those times it was important to find a different kind of narrative.We were quite intrigued as to how we could make an epic film. Of course as we know that is quite the contrary of the film genre in general. So it looked like an exciting challenge. And we loved these young people very much because we thought that we had to talk about people who became marginal who lived on the margins because we ourselves are exactly as marginal as they are. So therefore it was nothing special to make a film about them.