Grays and shadows lend this existential film noir parable of despair an almost abstract beauty amidst rain, mud, and howling dogs.

Bela Tarr has made an elusive, melancholic film about the approaching end of communism. Grays and shadows lend this existential film noir parable about despair an almost abstract beauty amidst rain, mud, and howling dogs. Since his dismissal, Karrer has lived a secluded life in a drab industrial town in the Hungarian countryside; he spends his evenings at the Titanic Bar, staring amorously at the singer, to no avail.

The woman is already married. This could be the logline or payoff for Béla Tarr's portrait of a destitute man in dire circumstances on the eve of the fall of communism. It would—for Tarr is not a director who likes to condense his work into simple one-liners. Story plays a secondary role in his films; the images—in black and white—do the work, while the soundtrack and music carry his parables about humanity like a bundle of existential despair. 4K digital restoration.