The Corridor (1995)

As much as I wanted to like Sharunas Bartas' The Corridor, I couldn't help feeling that this has all been done before, in a far better way, by Bela Tarr. It's interesting to note that Sátantango and The Corridor were made the same year, so at least Bartas cannot be accused of stealing Tarr's ideas. Like Tarr, Bartas works with an austere b&w cinematography and an approach to film-making that comes across more like a sort of cartography than as storytelling. The problem is that Bartas in this film lacks Tarr's eye for the sardonic, or the monumental. They share an interest in dishevelled landscapes and grizzled human beings. The Corridor has no dialogue. The camera moves from people's faces to their surroundings. Most of the film takes place in a run-down building. There is loneliness, but also lovers and even some dancing - the dancing is of course yet another similarity between this film and Satantango. Still, the tone is mostly lugubrious. I get the impression that Bartas tries to capture a state of in-between, limbo, a society that isn't going anywhere, a society of shock. Even though the Corridor contains a number of haunting images I never felt captivated by it as a movie. The images remained precisely that, images. In other words, the film did not, for me, have the power to introduce me to a world. Perhaps there are references and hints arcane to me that open up this film for other viewers.