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January 8, 2026
Béla Tarr’s quest for cinematic perfection made him my ideal, impossible mentor
The Son of Saul director recalls how getting his first job as assistant to the austere master was a hard but inspiring lesson in the most ambitious kind of movie-making
TL;DR
- The author met Béla Tarr in 2004 while working as an assistant on his film 'The Man from London'.
- Tarr's filmmaking style involved long, uninterrupted takes, shot in black and white, aiming to unify space, characters, and time.
- The production of 'The Man from London' was complex and fraught with difficulties, involving a multilingual cast and a challenging European co-production.
- The author learned the importance of artistic integrity and the difference between compromise and 'compromission' from Tarr.
- The tragedy of producer Humbert Balsan's suicide during the film's production underscored the link between Tarr's art and reality.
- The author was inspired by Tarr's ability to capture the humanity of the forgotten, as seen in the filming of 'Prologue' with homeless people in Budapest.
- Tarr instilled a rebellious spirit in his collaborators, encouraging them to question cinematic conventions.
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