{"id":2574,"date":"2026-06-20T12:36:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:36:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:36:01","slug":"hungarian-composer-mihaly-vig-reflects-on-four-decades-of-scoring-bela-tarrs-films-at-shanghai-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2574","title":{"rendered":"Hungarian Composer Mih\u00e1ly V\u00edg Reflects on Four Decades of Scoring B\u00e9la Tarr\u2019s Films at Shanghai Masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tMih\u00e1ly V\u00edg, the Hungarian composer, actor and screenwriter who has served as B\u00e9la Tarr\u2019s closest creative partner for more than four decades, held court at the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival, speaking at a masterclass following a screening of \u201cThe Turin Horse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2572\">\u2018Sumpa Kingdom\u2019 Screens at Shanghai, Director Lhapal Gyal and Cast Discuss Sacred Mountain Landscapes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tV\u00edg\u2019s bond with Tarr began in 1984 when the director, already an emerging figure in Hungarian cinema, tracked him down after spotting him in a friend\u2019s concert footage. Their first meeting was brief: Tarr invited V\u00edg to score \u201cAlmanac of Fall,\u201d and the collaboration was sealed over a glass of champagne. V\u00edg had no prior experience composing for film, and the project \u2013 which relied heavily on documentary aesthetics and improvised performance \u2013 made for a steep learning curve.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAs the partnership evolved across works including \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3,\u201d \u201cWerckmeister Harmonies,\u201d \u201cDamnation\u201d and \u201cThe Turin Horse,\u201d an unconventional workflow solidified. V\u00edg completes every musical composition before principal photography begins, working from the screenplay rather than the finished cut. His starting point is the overall emotional impression the script leaves on him. \u201cI listen deep within myself, waiting for inspiration and quietude to descend,\u201d he said, drawing on a line from a behind-the-scenes documentary about \u201cThe Turin Horse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat process works, V\u00edg explained, because he, Tarr and screenwriter L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai share a fundamental creative conviction: that people habitually avoid confronting the true nature of existence. The three men\u2019s alignment on that philosophical premise means that V\u00edg\u2019s scores rarely require lengthy revision rounds. Tarr, he said, trusts the composer\u2019s instincts entirely \u2013 though V\u00edg typically delivers several iterations from which the director picks the version that best serves the film.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSound, for V\u00edg, encompasses far more than scored music. He pointed to the relentless rain in \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3\u201d and the howling wind in \u201cThe Turin Horse\u201d as integral sonic elements. \u201cIf we quiet our minds and truly listen, we can call them beautiful music,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tV\u00edg\u2019s relationship with Tarr\u2019s films extends to performance. He delivered one of his most notable screen turns as the con man in \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3,\u201d a role he could only accept after memorizing more than thirty pages of script and committing to an uninterrupted dialogue sequence of around a dozen minutes. The experience, he said, gave him a direct understanding of how the director approaches casting \u2013 not by matching actors to written characters, but by finding individuals who embody those characters at their core. Tarr mixes professional and amateur performers, yet demands the same unrehearsed naturalism from each.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAsked about the common outside perception that Tarr is a \u201ctyrant\u201d on set, V\u00edg offered a starkly different picture. He recalled the director as invariably mild-tempered throughout shoots, never raising his voice, addressing any grievances with staff privately rather than publicly. Shooting Tarr\u2019s signature long takes felt akin to working in theatre: once the camera rolled, the director fell silent, waiting until the full shot wrapped before offering feedback. He granted actors wide latitude to interpret their roles, placing complete trust in everyone he cast.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2570\">\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 Star Aidan Gillen on Golden Age of \u2018F\u2014ing Brilliant\u2019 British Drama and Why There\u2019s \u2018Too Much\u2019 Stuff on TV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tOn the long-take aesthetic that defines Tarr\u2019s work, V\u00edg traced its lineage to Hungarian director Mikl\u00f3s Jancs\u00f3, a personal mentor to Tarr. In the director\u2019s view, fragmented editing breaks emotional continuity; an unbroken take mirrors the uninterrupted flow of lived experience.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tReflecting on the bleak minimalism of \u201cThe Turin Horse\u201d \u2013 a film of sparse dialogue and repeated domestic rituals \u2013 V\u00edg pushed back against readings of the film as simply nihilistic. He drew a distinction between the \u201clightness\u201d in Milan Kundera\u2019s writing and the \u201cheaviness\u201d in Tarr\u2019s images, arguing they are not straightforward opposites: even unrelenting tragedy, he said, contains threads of comedy. \u201cIt is akin to catharsis,\u201d he said. \u201cBy the end, everything feels cleansed. Audiences peer into the heart of things, and the whole world suddenly becomes lucid. Life is undeniably harsh, yet it also holds profound beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAmong the behind-the-scenes details V\u00edg shared: Krasznahorkai once left a screenplay argument with Tarr mid-dispute, only to return two days later with a sixty-page short story that became the foundation for \u201cThe Turin Horse.\u201d The production team also spent considerable time searching for a horse with a sufficiently sorrowful gaze, and after filming wrapped, ensured the animal was placed in a home where it could live out its remaining years comfortably.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAsked which of his scores he holds most dear, V\u00edg set aside the widely admired \u201cWerckmeister Harmonies\u201d soundtrack and named \u201cDamnation\u201d and \u201cThe Turin Horse\u201d as personal favourites. Among Tarr\u2019s features, \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3\u201d stands above the rest in his estimation. He had playful advice for those daunted by its seven-hour runtime: push through the first hour, he said, and the rest takes care of itself.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tClosing the masterclass, V\u00edg offered a phrase he attributed to Tarr\u2019s guiding philosophy: \u201cLife is a gift, and it would be discourteous to turn that gift away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2568\">Tony Leung Reflects on \u2018Silent Friend,\u2019 Wong Kar-wai and Why His Films Must Be Seen in Cinemas at Shanghai Masterclass<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Composer Mih\u00e1ly V\u00edg discussed scoring B\u00e9la Tarr&#8217;s films at a Shanghai Masterclass following a screening of &#8216;The Turin Horse.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2190,2191,882],"class_list":["post-2574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-bela-tarr","tag-mihaly-vig","tag-shanghai-international-film-festival-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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