Bela Tarr, Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at 70

Bela Tarr, a Hungarian filmmaker whose lengthy and grim films were critics' favorites, died on Monday at 70, the European Film Academy said in a news release. The academy said he had died after a long and serious illness but did not specify a cause. Born in Hungary in 1955 when the country was under Communist rule, Mr.

Tarr began his career with domestic dramas, debuting in 1979 with "Family Nest." Over eight subsequent films he developed a distinct style that made him a regular on the international festival circuit. The critic A.O. Scott, writing in The New York Times in 2012, said there was always "something ancient and ageless about his films" and compared Mr.

Tarr to "a medieval stone carver who happened to get his hands on a camera." Manohla Dargis, writing in The Times in 2006, called Mr. Tarr's seven-hour "Satantango" "his masterpiece," saying it showed his ability to "find beauty in every miserable and mundane corner." His other notable films included "Damnation" (1988), set in a mining settlement, and "Werckmeister Harmonies," set on the Great Hungarian Plain; like "Satantango," "Werckmeister Harmonies" was based on a text by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last year.

"The Turin Horse," Mr. Tarr's final film, was co-scripted with Mr. Krasznahorkai and depicts the bleak lives of a horse cart driver and his daughter as the world comes to an end.

Key Topics

Culture, Bela Tarr, Satantango, Werckmeister Harmonies, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Hungary