Change Your Image
hlitani
Reviews
Kárhozat (1988)
How to use light in film
The film demonstrates in the most eloquent manner how much colour one can
be found on black and white film emulsion. Béla Tarr and Gábor Medvigy his
cinematographer, tell the simple story in a sequence of very long shots, that are seemingly very realistic. The apparent realism in the film is spread into thin layers of detailed information in the composition of each frame, and add up to a full cinematic view on reality. Each shot tells a story, that relates not only to the characters and the plot, but mainly correspond with thoughts and ideas of a
different plot the visual plot. The visual delivery of the plot, so it seems, is more important then the plot itself. In one shot we can see a wide lens close up, lit with meticulous attention to every hair lock on the actress' head, develop into a panning shot of a crowd in the foreground and the hero in the background (in focus!), when each of the
events is lit in a different way so the audience would be able to tell the hero from the crowd, and each character is lit to his personal lighting theme. Gábor
Medvigy uses light like Ennio Morricone uses music.