So I found myself stuck in front of a big screen TV. Away from my DVDs I had to browse the on-demand menu and amongst the junk I decided to watch a Haneke: Funny Game (2008), a frame-by-frame American remake of the same-titled 1997 german speaking movie made by him (why the hell someone would do something like that).
I have to say that despite my dislike towards his movie, he succeeded in catching my attention. It was a painful feeling of guilt, I knew I fell in the trap Haneke had set up. Matter of fact his way of making movies is almost the same in his movies: to provoke the audience by presenting extremely disturbing situations, most often a couple or a family in crisis.
this is the synopsis of the movie by the female lead N Watts.
Haneke's "Funny Games" plays on two levels: the young guys playing games with the family, and Haneke himself playing games on the audience by letting his characters breaking the fourth wall, rewinding and fast-fwding the movie itself!
And though he makes a good point by breaking the Hollywoodian cliches formulas of violance and crime (shying away from the expected action, but spending ten minutes on after the aftermath. (the latter clip being from the original 1997 movie).
His first movie, the seventh continent received a high critical acclaim, look how he "annoyingly" goes on and on and on about the family destroying the furniture, or them flushing money bills down the toilet.
His die-hard fans always defend this as it gives strength and more reality to his scenes... I personally don't see anything of that at all. For me even if he tackles plot-wise, visually he is unimpressive at all (a crucial element in movie making)
Most of his movies either won or got special attention in Cannes: Code Unknown, Cache (Hidden), Time of The Wolf....
WASSIM
