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BUDAPEST, Hungary\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>The celebrated Hungarian filmmaker B\u00e9la Tarr, director of such works as \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3\u201d and \u201cThe Turin Horse\u201d and the recipient of numerous awards for his long and often darkly comic films, has died at 70.<\/p>\n During a career spanning decades, Tarr wrote and directed nine feature films, starting with his debut, \u201cFamily Nest,\u201d in 1979 and ending in 2011 with \u201cThe Turin Horse,\u201d which won the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival that year. <\/p>\n Tarr frequently collaborated with Hungarian author L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai<\/a>, who last year won the Nobel Prize in literature. Tarr\u2019s films, some of which were adaptations of Krasznahorkai\u2019s novels (\u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3\u201d and \u201cWerckmeister Harmonies\u201d), have been awarded prizes at festivals around Europe and Asia, and he received honorary professorships at universities in China.<\/p>\n In a statement on Tuesday, the Hungarian Filmmakers\u2019 Assn. confirmed Tarr\u2019s death, writing that \u201cwith deep sorrow we announce that, after a long and serious illness, film director B\u00e9la Tarr passed away early this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Tarr was born in 1955 in the southern Hungarian city of P\u00e9cs, but lived most of his life in the capital, Budapest. He completed his first feature film, \u201cFamily Nest,\u201d when he was only 23. That film won the Grand Prize at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival that year. <\/p>\n His films, the longest of which, \u201cS\u00e1t\u00e1ntang\u00f3,\u201d clocks in at 439 minutes or more than seven hours long, were widely praised as being beautifully shot while often using slow pacing and stark imagery to depict despair and social decay. <\/p>\n Often shot in black and white and defined by long, hypnotic single takes that could last upward of 10 minutes, Tarr\u2019s films depict bleak, hopeless, even dystopian landscapes set during Hungary\u2019s socialist era or in the years following the end of Soviet-dominated communism in Eastern Europe. <\/p>\n One of his most celebrated films, \u201cDamnation\u201d released in 1988, was co-written with Krasznahorkai and, after being positively received on the film festival circuit, helped to propel Tarr toward greater international recognition.<\/p>\n His unique style made his work a major influence on art house cinema including American filmmakers Gus van Sant and Jim Jarmusch, who have praised his vision.<\/p>\n Lars Rudolph in the 2000 film \u201cWerckmeister Harmonies,\u201d directed by B\u00e9la Tarr and \u00c1gnes Hranitzky.<\/p>\n (LACMA)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Tarr worked closely with his editor and principal collaborator \u00c1gnes Hranitzky for decades, and the couple were also romantic partners until 2012. Hranitszky edited all of Tarr\u2019s films beginning with \u201cThe Outsider\u201d in 1981. She also received co-directing credit alongside Tarr in his final three feature films, \u201cWerckmeister Harmonies,\u201d \u201cThe Man from London\u201d and \u201cThe Turin Horse.\u201d<\/p>\n The latter film \u201cis as complete a closing statement as any artist has made, a benediction not only for a great career but also perhaps for humanity itself,\u201d wrote former Times film critic Justin Chang<\/a>. \u201cIt is also a pure distillation of the techniques that have made Tarr a pioneering figure in cinema: the magisterial long takes, the ritualistic rhythms, the spell that can take hold only within the confines of a movie theater.\u201d<\/p>\n Tarr was at times politically outspoken, and criticized nationalism and populist politicians such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, as well as U.S. President Trump and France\u2019s far-right leader Marine Le Pen. <\/p>\n He was also critical of Hungary\u2019s cultural policies under Orb\u00e1n, and helped sponsor a group of students at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest who had occupied their campus in protest of government measures in 2020. <\/p>\n