Sátántangó (1994)'s activity

Building up to Satantango I watched two other works from Bela Tarr, Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) and The Turin Horse (2011). I am surprised that Satantango is by far the worst. Not to say this is a bad film, but everything Satantango accomplishes, Tarr's other films achieve better and in shorter time. I was expecting to be blown away by the cinematography, but this doesn't have the beautiful contrast grading of The Turin Horse or the interesting environments of Werckmeister Harmonies. The Bergman-esque magic present in all these movies is one of my favorite aspects, but Satantango includes this in so few of its scenes. Especially disappointing when you look at the overblown runtime. This film's structure is quite interesting, reflecting the forward/backward steps of a tango. The payoff, the closing of the circle did not seem worth the meandering though.