Review of The Man from London

I like Simenon as an author and Tarr as a director, so an adaptation of a Simenon novel by Tarr raised my interest. Tarr has resumed his Ars Poetica with the two words "human dignity", and in this he resembles Simenon, who also portrays with compassion even his most wretched characters. I think Simenon would have liked this film of Tarr, as he was fond of plastic scenes, and strove for plastic descriptions. I do not know what Simenon might have said of the slow pace of the film or the reduced plot. There is a slowness to his books also, but also many action, dialog, tension, humor etc. As for me, the slowness annoyed me a bit, as in all films of Tarr, yet I was watching it on the video and jumped the scenes I found boring. The overall effect of the film was good and it was lasting as well.