“Satan Tango” running time 7 hours and 18 minutes! Legendary works question the nature of film

Amazing long takes and moving shots

In recent years, it is not uncommon for Hollywood movies to consist of more than 3,000 cuts, and even Japanese movies, which tend to have relatively long cuts, often have 600 to 700 cuts. In contrast, ``Satantango'' has a running time of over 7 hours, but only has about 150 cuts in total. On average, one cut lasts nearly 3 minutes. While I was watching the movie, I tried to measure the length of several cuts, and found that some cuts were as short as one minute, and as long as six minutes or more. There are many directors who prefer long takes, so this alone is not unusual, but there is another major feature in the film's cinematography. That means a lot of moving photography. In other words, the camera continues to move throughout most of the cuts.

The movie opens with a shot of cows coming out of their sheds on a farm. The camera silently follows the movement of about 20 cows with neat horizontal movements. On the way, the cows are blocked by a building wall, making it impossible to see the cows, but the camera continues to move regardless, and when the wall breaks, the cows reappear. The cows then slowly disappear towards the other side of the building at the back of the screen (this cut probably lasted about 5 minutes).

"Satantango"

The camera continues to move in this manner throughout the film. For example, even in a scene where two people are having a conversation, there are no cuts, and the camera moves quietly back and forth between the two people, showing the entire scene. What was Tal Béla trying to capture with these long takes and moving shots? As I continued to think about its meaning during the incredible seven hours I spent viewing the film, the word "pure duration" came to mind.

An attempt to break through the contradictions between the essence of “time” and film.