Michael Haneke

[Dan Warburton]

Haneke is a pretty problematic film maker in general, as I think we've discussed before.

Have we (you)? Where? In the meantime, have a new thread.

I have more respect for him than almost any other contemporary director, yet I have little to no interest in seeing any of his films more than once.

With the exception of Cache, I agree with that completely. I've really been disappointed by the other Haneke's I've seen, including Seventh Continent, which I thought was pretty bad.

I'm just coming to him for the first time, would you believe. This is the first thing of his I've seen. But that "pretty bad" needs some explanation - I can see why you wouldn't like it, but why do you call it bad? I thought it was beautifully shot, edited with flair and rhythm - there's a real musicality to the scene where they're trashing the house, which builds impressively to the climactic axe blow to the aquarium (oops sorry spoilers oh dear haha never mind) - his eye for colour and detail is impressive. So the acting is rather flat.. but isn't that the point? Existence was rather flat for these people.
Anyway, Benny's Video and 71 Fragments await. Will report back in due course.

[jon abbey]

I like Seventh Continent, the two you have on tap are relative duds, though.

dunno where we've discussed him exactly, did you search on his name in the archives? it seems like some of the IHF threads with real content were somehow lost in the move, like the previous Berlin Alexanderplatz discussion.

[Dan Warburton]

I like Seventh Continent, the two you have on tap are relative duds, though.

Well, I'll watch 'em anyway. Found a 3 DVD set for 10€, too good to pass up.

dunno where we've discussed him exactly, did you search on his name in the archives?

No, I'm awfully lazy. Every time I look through IHF archives I end up getting depressed when I see how many of my own posts I tried unsuccessfully to erase

[surfer]

Apologies, I'm not even going to attempt to hide any spoilers, too lazy and difficult.

I'm just coming to him for the first time, would you believe. This is the first thing of his I've seen. But that "pretty bad" needs some explanation - I can see why you wouldn't like it, but why do you call it bad? I thought it was beautifully shot, edited with flair and rhythm - there's a real musicality to the scene where they're trashing the house, which builds impressively to the climactic axe blow to the aquarium (oops sorry spoilers oh dear haha never mind) - his eye for colour and detail is impressive. So the acting is rather flat.. but isn't that the point? Existence was rather flat for these people.
Anyway, Benny's Video and 71 Fragments await. Will report back in due course.

Let me just say I havent seen Benny's Video, 71 Fragments, or Code Unknown (which is next in my queue, and which PW says is his favorite Haneke). When I say "bad" I'm not criticizing it technically or stylistically, I'm criticizing it cinematically. I have a problem with Seventh Continent the way others may have a problem with Wes Anderson. Haneke often seems more interested in exploring style (modern, sterile, grey) than in the idea that forms the core of the movie. Once you figure out what the conceit is with movies like SC or Funny Games, it then becomes a matter of endurance. When talking with others about plot twists, I'm often the last to figure the details out, but with both you catch on very quickly what he's going to do. I didnt find either very thought provoking or nuanced (it might be a bit unfair to expect nuance, you cant really rape a viewer into independence, with nuance).

The Piano Teacher is a little more interesting, mostly because Huppert does pretty well within a limited emotional range, but Cache asks moral questions the others including Piano Teacher dont. I thought about that movie more than any the past decade. Georges preceptions of guilt and responsibilty, whether we judge it as justified or not, or somewhere in between, and how Haneke uses that to reflect back on ourselves and our society, opens the frame both formally (in terms of who is sending the videos) and ideologically.

SC and FG tend towards closing the frame of questioning. Life is pointless? Really is that all you have to say? have you known the inexorable sadness of pencils,
Desolation in immaculate public places,
Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,
The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher,
Endless duplicaton of lives and objects. etc etc etc . . . . . ... . . .
Suicide is a serious issue and act, and Haneke doesnt really examine it in any depth at all, rather he uses it purely for shock value, but because its so obvious what the endgame is going to be, it loses even that characteristic. Jon called it a one-trick pony done well, I'd call it a one-trick pony that fails at that one trick.

Cache, otoh, is a beautiful melding of style and substance. From the opening sequence of video within a video, to Majid's departure, which is a memorable, difficult, perfectly composed scene. The helplessness you as a viewer feel, the shared guilt, and what the distance between you and the event does. To the suicide which IS actually one of the great "stomach punch" scenes of recent cinema (I actually had to pause the DVD to catch my breath the first time). The way the camera doesnt move, like a sinewave in an eai recording. In fact, I feel like Cache actaully has a lot in common with a stereotypical eai recording: long tense sense of forboding, nothing quite right, an explosion of violence, and then an attempt to come to terms with that violence. I also thought the last scene over the credits was pretty brilliant, not too hard to catch, or pretentious. Of course Juilette is brilliant as always, as is Auteuil. Canonical work imo.

I have to also say that SC was the first Haneke movie I saw after Cache, so I was pretty disappointed.

[Dan Warburton]

Splendid post, thanks for taking the time to write it up! Ah, I nearly bought Cache just a couple of hours ago at MKII DVD (best DVD shop in town), but bought a 5 DVD box of Alfred Hitchcock Presents instead. And Vanishing Point.. But that's for another thread.

[Salty Swift]

I like Seventh Continent, the two you have on tap are relative duds, though.

dunno where we've discussed him exactly, did you search on his name in the archives? it seems like some of the IHF threads with real content were somehow lost in the move, like the previous Berlin Alexanderplatz discussion.

Jon, BUT seriously how the hell can you like the Seventh Continent.....do you have little kids????
WTF!!

It's certainly a great movie, BUT how can any human "like" it?????

[Salty Swift]

I like Seventh Continent, the two you have on tap are relative duds, though.

Well, I'll watch 'em anyway. Found a 3 DVD set for 10€, too good to pass up.

dunno where we've discussed him exactly, did you search on his name in the archives?

No, I'm awfully lazy. Every time I look through IHF archives I end up getting depressed when I see how many of my own posts I tried unsuccessfully to erase

Dan - can you please post the link to the Haneke sale ....

[jon abbey]

Jon, BUT seriously how the hell can you like the Seventh Continent.....do you have little kids????
WTF!!

It's certainly a great movie, BUT how can any human "like" it?????

well, that's semantic nitpicking IMO, but if it helps, I tend to share Haneke's lack of compassion/empathy towards the rest of the human race. and no, I've never had kids and never will.

[Salty Swift]

Jon, BUT seriously how the hell can you like the Seventh Continent.....do you have little kids????
WTF!!

It's certainly a great movie, BUT how can any human "like" it?????

well, that's semantic nitpicking IMO, but if it helps, I tend to share Haneke's lack of compassion/empathy towards the rest of the human race. and no, I've never had kids and never will.

The last 10 or 15 minutes of the film make me vomit.....I can't picture myself watching the scene that feature Jennifer Warnes babbling on about "The Power of Love"......it's all too sick....but the movie is still brilliant!

[Dan Warburton]

Dan - can you please post the link to the Haneke sale ....

No sale, just found one copy of a 3DVD box set (Losange).

Every single time I watch the last 15 minutes of the film, all I feel is a strong urge to throw up

But it's presumably a film you return to quite often, hence the "every single time"?

I tend to share Haneke's lack of compassion/empathy towards the rest of the human race. and no, I've never had kids and never will.

I used to say that too.. Never say never.

[Gaendaal]

I've only seen Cache but I really didn't think much to it at all. Yeah, I know, political allegory...middle-class guilt...racial tension behind the veneer of European unity...yadda yadda. I just found the whole thing deeply boring. I'm quite happy with characters being unlikeable or inexplicable but not downright dull.

Majid's departure (as it's spoiler-friendly referred to below) didn't hit me at all. I remember that people in the cinema were yelping and one woman started crying but, and maybe I'm just not getting it, it seemed forced and required of the script more than the character.

Maybe I don't identify with the characters in the film or, more possibly, who the film is aimed at but it said nothing to me whatsoever.

[surfer]

Does anybody have anything to say about his new one, The White Ribbon, which just won the Palme d'Or three weeks ago?


Does this look like a man who hates humanity?

Gotta say, I have high hopes for this one, all the reviews have been great.

[surfer]

Clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_vRCvCyUpw

[Salty Swift]

Dan - can you please post the link to the Haneke sale ....

No sale, just found one copy of a 3DVD box set (Losange).

Every single time I watch the last 15 minutes of the film, all I feel is a strong urge to throw up

But it's presumably a film you return to quite often, hence the "every single time"?

I tend to share Haneke's lack of compassion/empathy towards the rest of the human race. and no, I've never had kids and never will.

I used to say that too.. Never say never.

Reason I return to Seventh Continent is mostly to watch the scene where the Golden Palominos record is torn to shreds.....oh, the humanity....
The goldfish and money-in-the toilet scenes are two of my other favourites

[Chromosome]

Majid's departure (as it's spoiler-friendly referred to below) didn't hit me at all. I remember that people in the cinema were yelping and one woman started crying but, and maybe I'm just not getting it, it seemed forced and required of the script more than the character.

I would agree in that Majid's departure didn't really seem warranted at that moment. But then again, we can only guess about his recent past.

[smithy]

I've only seen Cache but I really didn't think much to it at all. Yeah, I know, political allegory...middle-class guilt...racial tension behind the veneer of European unity...yadda yadda. I just found the whole thing deeply boring. I'm quite happy with characters being unlikeable or inexplicable but not downright dull.

Majid's departure (as it's spoiler-friendly referred to below) didn't hit me at all. I remember that people in the cinema were yelping and one woman started crying but, and maybe I'm just not getting it, it seemed forced and required of the script more than the character.

Maybe I don't identify with the characters in the film or, more possibly, who the film is aimed at but it said nothing to me whatsoever.

I'm with you 100%. I thought Majid's departure was unconvincing both plotwise and visually. The premise regarding an injustice committed by a six year old boy and its far reaching consequences was laughable. The film was smug and pedestrian relying on a cryptic presentation which barely disguised a banal premise. I was indifferent to all the characters on both sides. I could only admire the craft which was very very good indeed but not enough for me.

I also made the fatal mistake of watching the interviews with Haneke on the Cache DVD. What an arrogant jerk.

Haneke said regarding Funny Games following its premiere at Cannes. That people who walked out of the film didn't need to see it and people who stayed did. Haneke knows what's good for us.

[cheerios]

So I saw the seventh continent today. I thought it was OK, definitely good for the time period (late 80s? I think it was made in 89). I haven't seen any other of his movies except part of Funny Games which I couldn't really stomach (Or I was too fucked up at the time or both).

For the SC there were some brilliant moments in it and not so brilliant ones. I couldn't stomach the scene where they were throwing away all that money though. I liked how ignorant these characters were, trashing the house when they could've been donating the goods or something like that. I didn't really expect a triple suicide at the end though, I thought that they might've ended up in Australia only the repeat their life in Europe.

[P. Wretch]

I finally watched Benny's Video - one of the less popular ones, it seems - and actually thought it was pretty good. I can see why some people might object to the plot, but really, Haneke is such a technically-accomplished director that he is arguably incapable of making a 'bad' film.

As for The Seventh Continent, I think it's at least as good as anything he's done since, and possibly even a contender for his best work. I suppose he'd done prior work in TV, but as a feature director he came out fully-formed.

[Dan Warburton]

I couldn't stomach the scene where they were throwing away all that money though. I liked how ignorant these characters were, trashing the house when they could've been donating the goods or something like that.

What an idea, like, hang on a sec love before we do ourselves in, let's just have a quick websearch of worthy charities to donate our wordly possessions to.. whaddya mean, ya smashed up the fuckin computer? Gaaah.. Maybe you think they should have alerted the local hospital and had a surgeon standing by to remove organs, since donation is your thing. You win one cracked copy of the Golden Palominons Visions of Excess for the most entertaining comment on the thread so far.

[P. Wretch]

I couldn't stomach the scene where they were throwing away all that money though.

Doesn't Haneke say something in one of the interviews about that being the typical reaction of the desensitised bourgeois viewer (the one he usually seems to be railing against), i.e. that watching money being wasted is more disturbing than anything else?