I had the opportunity to see Bela Tarr’s Prefab People at the Walker last month. The film is a retrospective on Hungarian culture during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Bela Tarr wanted to capture the melancholy state of relationships . He accomplished this through intense closes up throughout the film, the use of the close ups of his characters (husband and wife) helped portray an intense uncomfortable intimacy and highlight the couples disconnect. Almost always examining his characters and never really informing the viewers exactly of the characters surroundings. Ultimately we are constantly forced to examine the whirlwind, unbalanced relationship between the two characters, and act as observers.

The opening scene of the film shows the husband quickly packing a suitcase and calmly announcing to his wife that he is leaving, she immediately becomes hysterical yelling to him that when things are wrong he cannot pack up and leave. The film takes off from here retreating back into time showing the meltdown of their relationship. The tight, claustrophobic living conditions that the husband and wife live in is humors and ironic, they are constantly forced to be in close spaces together and are constantly unable to connect or agree with each other.

There are two great scenes I believe in the film. The first shows the couple sitting at a bar after a long night of disagreeing and disappointment (on the wife’s end in her inability to dance with her husband, but his ability to dance with another person’s wife throughout the night), the husband trashed sings with an awful mariachi singer the camera slowly pans from close up to close up between the two , the husband wallowing with the marachi singer unable to sense his wife ready to leave and the wife unable to pull herself up and enjoy her husbands cheerful mood. Back and fourth the camera pans from close up to close up both unable to enjoy themselves together.

The second is the final scene of the film , it shows the couple the morning after their feud purchasing a washing machine . The final scene shows them sitting in a bed of truck with the washing machine sitting next to each other.This scene wraps up the entire film with an underlying message that their relationship runs in cycles.

The film is definitely an art film, I wouldn’t go into it expecting to be entertained by some huge blockbuster dramatic arc . However afterwards it will leave you reflecting on the couples relationship and the comfortablenesses of the film will remain. Worth adding to your Netflix account.