Holy Cut!

Bela Tarr on the set of “The Turin Horse” 

The long takes that Bela Tarr uses in “The Turin Horse” are not only meant to celebrate the flow and the emotional coherence of a situation (which he explains to Amy Lee on the huffingtonpost.com):

"Why do you choose to use long takes? 

When you do long takes, you are doing everything in the camera, 

you are editing in the camera. You just do not cut,

 because the tension of the time, and the tension of the movement, 

and the tension of the situation between the actors 

and between the actors and the camera 

and the whole stuff together, you can have it, 

and everyone has to be in the situation -- they cannot escape. 

If you do short takes, it takes 15 or 20 seconds then cut. 

Then the poor actor has no chance to be in the situation..."

In addition to the aesthetic and performance benefits, the long takes Tarr builds create context in which a cut becomes an extraordinary narrative tool. A Tarr’s cut changes the point of view in a more profound way than every-day film cutting. It ceases to be just an aid in the physiology of perception as it uncovers that which previously has not been considered. Moving the camera becomes a revelatory action, which offers a distinctly different way to perceive reality.