The Prefab People (1982)

So, more Bela Tarr. I actually liked this one a bit more than Family Nest, but not by much, unfortunately. I really liked it for the first few scenes, but then it started to get really boring and once again dragged on and on. There are a few very good moments, but they're like islands in the middle of an ocean of endlessly boring scenes.

The film is smaller in scope than Family Nest, and centers almost exclusively on a young couple. In Family Nest, the fact that there's a whole family in close-quarters, all bickering, with disorienting closeups and poor subtitles really made it hard to differentiate between the characters themselves and to follow the story of the film. But, Prefab People has a much more intimate feel, which it seems Tarr handles far better. The characters still feel very real, which is good, because I think everyone can relate to couples arguing over things like money, if not themselves, then something they've witnessed firsthand.

The film has no regard for time and/or explanation. Tarr jumps from one scene to another without explaining where or when they are, and for all we know, it could be a flashback, a fantasy, or simply a future event. This both helps and hinders the film, I think, but you can really argue it either way. The film begins and ends with nearly-identical scenes of the man trying to move out of the house, suddenly. I say nearly-identical, because I can't tell if they're exactly the same, and they felt kind of different to me. But, Tarantino and Kubrick both used the flashback-with-different-events trick. I think this probably says something about the inescapable nature of the lives we live, how we can bicker and argue and try to leave, but we just can't, no matter what.