Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr has died at 70 : NPR

Bela Tarr, Hungarian arthouse director, best known for his dark, existential and complex films, including Satanic Tango And Werkmeister of Harmonydied at the age of 70. Association of Hungarian Cinematographers shared a statement on Tuesday announced Tarr's death after a serious illness, but did not provide further details.

Tarr was born in communist Hungary in 1955 and made his film debut in 1979. Family nest, the first of nine feature films, culminating in his 2011 film. Turin horse. Curse, released in 1988 at the Berlin International Film Festival, it became his first film to achieve worldwide acclaim and transformed Tarr from an obscure director of social dramas into a leading international film festival fixture.

Tarr's reputation as a film tinged with anguish and hard-heartedness, featuring black-and-white cinematography and unusually long sequences, only grew throughout the 1990s and 2000s, especially after his 1994 film. Satanic Tango. The epic drama, which follows a Hungarian village reeling from the effects of communism, is best known for its length: it clocks in at seven and a half hours.

Based on the novel by Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkay. received the Nobel Prize for Literature last year and a frequent collaborator with Tarr, the film became a touchstone for the “slow cinema” movement, with Tarr joining the ranks of directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Chantal Akerman and Theo Angelopoulos. Writer and critic Susan Sontag welcomed Satanic Tango as “devastating, engrossing every minute of seven hours.”

Tarr's next breakthrough came in 2000 with his film. Werkmeister of Harmonythe first of three films made together with his partner, editor Agnes Granicki. Another free adaptation of Krasznahorkai’s novel. The film follows the strange arrival of a circus in a small town in Hungary. With only 39 shots running time, the film has a running time of two and a half hours, and Tarr's penchant for long takes is on full display.

Like Satanic Tangoit was a major success with both critics and arthouse audiences. Both films popularized Tarr's style and earned the admiration of independent directors such as Jim Jarmusch and Gus Van Sant. quoted Tarr as a direct influence on his films: “They are so close to the real rhythm of life that it is like the birth of a new cinema. He's one of the few truly visionary directors.”

Another actress is Tilda Swinton. fan Tarra and starred in the director's 2007 film. Man from London. At the premiere, Tarr announced that his next film would be his last. That 2011 movie Turin horse, typically dark but with an apocalyptic twist, it follows a man and his daughter as they face the end of the world. The film received the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

After graduation Turin horseIn 2013, Tarr launched an international film program called film.factory within the framework of the Sarajevo Film Academy. He directed and taught at the school for four years, inviting various directors and actors to teach workshops and mentor students, including Swinton, Van Sant, Jarmusch, Juliette Binoche and Gael García Bernal.

In the last years of his life he worked on a number of artistic projects. including an exhibition at the Film Museum in Amsterdam. He remained politically outspoken throughout his life, denouncing the rise of nationalism and criticizing the government of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban.