Nothing counts: shot and event in Werckmeister Harmonies

This essay examines the nature of the shot in Bla Tarr'sWerckmeister Harmonies(2000), asking what is achieved in Tarr's decision to stage the film as a series of sequence shots. It considers the shot as an event and argues that the distinctive quality of the Werckmeister shot rests in its being simultaneously concrete and void. It contrasts Tarr's film with the work of Michelangelo Antonioni, who is understood as a key precursor. Is there a pure form of the event? A solar eclipse, a glass of water thrown on hot coals, a walk through the town at midnight the variety of events is infinite, yet the occurrence, the happening, is that the same in every case? Can we separate the pure form of the event from what happens in a given instance? Is the happening different from what happens? Whether sunrise or dice throw, planetary movement or drunken stumble, is the occurrence always the same? Is there one event repeated in every event?