This movie when taken at face value is baffling and confusing. There is imagery that seems nonsensical if not downright weird, and there are scenes that seem to go on well past when they should have ended. You basically have two choices when faced with these long intervals allowed by the director. 1. Reject the movie, and this is easy to do, because its uncomfortable to sit there watching people walk with no talking for five minutes, or 2. Engage with the movie. By engaging with movie, I mean force yourself to think about what different symbols of the movie mean, and consider that everything in the movie is there for a reason. The key is to contemplate the two central metaphors or images of the film - The idea of the The Werkmeister's Harmonies, and the symbolism of the circus show, and to extend these interpretations to political organization and philosophy of science. The director himself has been elusive at explaining his imagery, and I think in a way this is the point. There are countless movies (Hollywood, and independent) that simply tell you what to think, leaving you the viewer as the passive receiver of information. This movie really forces you to engage with the story and bring your own interpretations and thoughts to it, in order to derive meaning. If you don't do this, the two and a half hours of the movie can be a miserable experience, but if you put the effort in, you will be amazed at how the movie continues to reward. Put it this way, my wife and I saw this movie and spent the next two hours in a coffee shop talking about nothing but the movie, and the conversation was of the exciting, "And what do you think that meant . . . and how did this fit with that part . . . oh yeah, that's great that works . . . or lets use this interpretation as a placeholder for now since we need to fill in some blanks." A great stimulating conversation. Name another movie of the past year that could inspire the same kind of conversation. Even if you can, if you're being honest, you would have to admit that movies like this one are very rare.
Review of Werckmeister Harmonies
