I have not seen the Facets release of WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, so I can't comment on it. Here's a couple relevant paragraphs from my review on the Turner Classic Movies website:markhax wrote:I own the AE Satantango, but know 'Damnation' and 'Werckmeister Harmonies' only through the Facet releases. Are the AE versions appreciably better, and if so how?
I'd also be curious to hear what other folks say about THE WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, though I can't imagine that it tops the corrected Artificial Eye release.The Facets DVD of Damnation is part of their ongoing series of Bela Tarr films. Letterboxed at roughly 1.66:1 or slightly less, the black-and-white image looks a little dark. By comparison, the British PAL DVD distributed by Artificial Eye is brighter and has sharper detail. The Artificial Eye DVD is also presented full frame at 1.33:1, and thus has more space on the top and the bottom of the frame. Master's of Cinema's Nick Wrigley, whom I consider a knowledgeable source, cites a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. However, comparing both DVDs closely, I'm at a loss to say which of the two really is preferable--in some shots the framing of the Facets DVD definitely looks more dynamic, but in other places it feels a little tight, cutting off the very tops of the characters' heads. IMDb lists the aspect ratio as an even wider 1.85:1, but that seems most unlikely. Whatever proves correct, the framing of the Facets DVD works for the most part and won't spoil your appreciation of the film's unique visual style.
On the downside, the Facets transfer has a significant amount of digital artifacting in the darker portion of certain shots. Because so much of the film's effect depends on subtle visual textures, Facets should have compressed the 2-hour film at a higher bit rate and mastered it as a dual layer rather than single layer disc. To sum up, the Facets transfer is not stellar but it's certainly acceptable, nothing to prevent me from recommending the disc as a whole. The mono soundtrack is clear and does a good job of conveying Tarr's layered, atmospheric approach to sound design.
Addendum: I just borrowed the Facets DVD of WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES from someone, and here's the skinny. It's 1.66:1 and has optical subtitles on the film print itself (rather than electronic subtitles). It's taken from a PAL source--perhaps supplied direct from Hungary--and thus has 4% speedup, combing, and slight (but not overly bad) motion blurring associated with the PAL-NTSC conversion. It looks OK--but then again the Artifical Eye disc, which I own, looks very nice.