László Krasznahorkai and how to resist melancholy and an incessant need for speed

László Krasznahorkai. My first introduction to his work was through the films of the Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr. Needless to say, the connection is Sátántangó’, Tarr’s seven-hour and 19-minute epic. Although Sátántangó was released in 1994, I had the opportunity to see the film two years later, in 2000. Around the same time, I watched Tarr’s Damnation, originally released in 1988. All this in during the pre-streaming era, and I distinctly remember the film club congregation where these films were screened as an introduction to the brave new world of post-communist East European World Cinema.

On the title card of the films, I noticed this Krasznahorkai’s name as a collaborator on the screenplay, along with Tarr. After digging a bit, I found out that while the original script for Damnation was written for the film, the source for Sátántangó was Krasznahorkai’s novel, which was already considered a classic in Hungary. However, back then I couldn't locate an English translation of Sátántangó.

Cut to 2001. A Barnes and Noble bookstore in Seattle. I came across the name again. A sudden, unexpected, serendipitous contact – perhaps this is how excavation of memory is accomplished! However, the novel on which the name was inscribed had a different name – The Melancholy of...

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