alr

The Prefab People
(Panelkapcsolat)

Screening on Film
Directed by Béla Tarr.
With Róbert Koltai, Judit Pógany, Gábor Koltai.
Hungary, 1982, 35mm, black & white, 82 min.
Hungarian with English subtitles.

In his first film using professional actors, Tarr perfects his documentary-style social dramas in this study of a marriage in permanent decomposition. A middle-class couple’s daily clashes range from the uncomfortable comedy of their ninth anniversary celebration – with his gifts of hairspray, a mug and a bottle of liquor – to an exquisitely restrained scene in a night club where an unspoken procession of emotions details the stubbornly-maintained chasm between them. Further realized in cleverly ambiguous editing, their vicious cycle continues indefinitely through an ending – recalling that of The Graduate  – which suggests the mass production of the modern, damaged family unit. – BG

Part of film series

Read more

The Melancholy Worlds of Béla Tarr

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2024 McMillan-Stewart Fellow

Read more

The Practice (and Other Works) By Martín Rejtman

Read more

Chronicles of Changing Times. The Cinema of Edward Yang

Read more
Gene Hackman crouched beside a toilet with audio equipment

From the HFA Collection...

Read more

Being In a Place. Rediscovering Margaret Tait