BELA TARR – SÁTÁNTANGO WITH FUR ALINA
Watching the movie “Satantango” was an extraordinary experience. The film was already on my “going-to-watch” list, but I did not have a chance to take a single glance until this assignment. Before analyzing the scene, I have to mention I was petrified that Bela Tarr genuinely killed the cat to make it more ‘realistic’. He truly appreciates realism; camera movements, acting and sound usage in the torturing scene doubled the extreme realism he tries to deliver. The cat is lying still after drinking “poison”; this incredibly realistic, uncomfortable and hard to watch sequence forced me to do a quick research. I found out that he worked with an animal doctor. The cat had an injection to sleep. We can still discuss whether it is ethical to use an animal and abuse it in some respects, but I am glad that he has boundaries about it.
When we come to the issue at hand, I want to discuss the scene without ‘Fur Alina’. The girl killed her cat because she felt desperate, hopeless, abandoned, and most importantly, powerless and alone. She is the only child we see in this world of grown-ups. The reason for torturing and killing was simple; she is more potent than the cat, and she needs to prove herself that she still has power over something; in her own words, “I can do whatever I want to you!”. But she felt regret, razed by what she did, what she becomes. Our scene started just after this moment of realization. The girl is walking in the tremendous forest; it’s raining. This forest scene, together with the sounds of rain and wind, creates a great contrast with the little girl’s powerlessness. The girl has power over the cat in her arms, but nature is more powerful than the lonely girl. This indicates the similarities between the girl and the cat; they are both desperate, alone, powerless, both are subjects of abuse in the face of great powers. (maybe empathy is the reason why she felt regret about what she did to her cat). Bela Tarr creates a rhythm with the sound of steps and uses this diegetic step sounds like a connection between shots in this scene.
When we play this scene with ‘Fur Alina’ non-diegetically, first of all, the scene is losing its real power. Non-diegetic music mostly tells the audience that they are watching a movie, which violates reality (There are some exceptions, such as Haneke’s “Piano Teacher”. When Erika goes to the porn store after the class, we hear Schubert’s Trio op. 100, which is also used in Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. This music in that scene is actually playing in Erika’s mind). Plus, non-diegetic pieces weigh down on diegetic ones; this will cause the loss of a message which the director is trying to confer. Reality is indivisible in the context. Another thing is music will suppress another foremost important thing, the sound of nature. The girl is powerless in the face of this world. Music transmits this powerlessness and hopelessness inorganically, blocking the audience from entering the world of the girl. The scene is losing the rhythm of Estike’s steps also. The rhythm of music is slower than the rhythm of steps, creates confusion and disturbs the organic transformation between shots. But if this minimal music piece will play as a non-diegetic soundtrack with the diegetic sounds, which are nature and step sounds, minimal music usage is giving us space to fill it by ourselves. This condition also creates a fascinating contrast between fast pace step sounds and the plodding rhythm of the music. Including with sound of rain, you can make more empathy with the girl, and start to think about her/his life.
To conclude, I think there should not be any soundtrack during the scene. But if there must be one, this minimal piece could be the best among the worst. Still, it has to be quiet to disturb or suppress the diegetic sounds because the scene takes its power from its diegetic soundscape.
“You are the sun. The sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. You are the Earth. The Earth is here for a start, and then the Earth moves around the sun. And now, we’ll have an explanation that simple folks like us can also understand, about immortality. All I ask is that you step with me into the boundlessness, where constancy, quietude and peace, infinite emptiness reign. And just imagine, in this infinite sonorous silence, everywhere is an impenetrable darkness. Here, we only experience general motion, and at first, we don’t notice the events that we are witnessing. The brilliant light of the sun always sheds its heat and light on that side of the Earth which is just then turned towards it. And we stand here in its brilliance. This is the moon. The moon revolves around the Earth. What is happening? We suddenly see that the disc of the moon, the disc of the moon, on the Sun’s flaming sphere, makes an indentation, and this indentation, the dark shadow, grows bigger… and bigger. And as it covers more and more, slowly only a narrow crescent of the sun remains, a dazzling crescent. And at the next moment, the next moment – say that it’s around one in the afternoon – a most dramatic turn of event occurs. At that moment the air suddenly turns cold. Can you feel it? The sky darkens, then goes all dark. The dogs howl, rabbits hunch down, the deer run in panic, run, stampede in fright. And in this awful, incomprehensible dusk, even the birds… the birds too are confused and go to roost. And then… Complete Silence. Everything that lives is still. Are the hills going to march off? Will heaven fall upon us? Will the Earth open under us? We don’t know. We don’t know, for a total eclipse has come upon us… But… but no need to fear. It’s not over. For across the sun’s glowing sphere, slowly, the Moon swims away. And the sun once again bursts forth, and to the Earth slowly there comes again light, and warmth again floods the Earth. Deep emotion pierces everyone. They have escaped the weight of darkness”
―