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    Michael Haneke

    All I've seen of this directors work is Cache and The Piano Teacher. I thought Cache was really good (including the ending which left my partner infuriated) and found The Piano Teacher excellent but emotionaly draining.

    I'm starting this thread looking for other films I should see of his. This has been prompted by a Guardian Film blog about his version of The Castle by Kafka which looks really interesting but appears to be unavailible in the UK.

    My obvious starting point would be Funny Games would it not?

    #2
    Michael Haneke

    The original Funny Games, yes ... but having said that, it's the only one of his (apart from those you've mentioned) that I've seen. But it's terrifying: check out the egg-borrowing scene. You'll not see suspense handled much better. There's a bit of gimmicky trickery later on that jarred with me a bit, but overall very uncomfortable (in a good way, I suppose) viewing.

    The White Ribbon's had really good reviews.

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      #3
      Michael Haneke

      There's a new box set out that does include The Castle, I'm sure.

      I find Haneke alternately infuriating and interesting and depressing. Benny's Video is worth seeing, and perhaps less depressing than most of the rest. If you want to give up fully on humanity, Time of the Wolf will do the trick. Cache is slightly overrated. La Pianiste and Code Inconnu are very good, I think, and maybe I'd choose those to watch if I were you, but all his films, to me, have a fatal flaw in that there is no humour. Not saying I think there should be laugh out loud moments, but I think truly great filmmaking about serious concerns, and Haneke is very serious and addresses very heavy themes, needs a touch of leavening, a touch of faith in humanity to outline the shadows and make them that much darker.Having said that, I hear the White Ribbon may be a breakthrough in that direction and I'm looking forward to it very much.

      Funny Games I have a separate rant for because it still annoys me even now. I saw it when it came out and not since, but to this day I get pissed off with it. It's like an irritating child screaming in your face for 90 minutes going 'It's all YOUR fault! Yes you! We filmmakers are not responsible for anything! You sick fuckers make us do it!! On top of that, you're too stupid to understand subtlety! So I have to hammer the point home over and over and over again! And it's all YOUR FAULT!' In German.

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        #4
        Michael Haneke

        Yeah look here you go.

        http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/11102776/The-Essential-Michael-Haneke-Box-Set/Product.html

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          #5
          Michael Haneke

          Funny Games is mental, and brilliant. Put it this way, you won't be bored.

          For me, The Piano Teacher is easily the most depressing/sombre of his films.

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            #6
            Michael Haneke

            One of the things I get from the films I've seen is a sense of helplessness. The characters are always going to act in the way they do, there is no feeling that they are making decisions. I'm not sure if this is good or bad but it is very different to most other film makers.

            I'm not sure I agree about the lack of humour. I'm sure I remember stifling a nervous chuckle while watching The Piano Teacher, I can't recall when though.

            I'm really missing Opera's built in spell checker at the moment.

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              #7
              Michael Haneke

              I'm just back from watching his latest, it will take a while to digest but I highly recommend it. As usual with Haneke most of the really shocking stuff happens in your imagination rather than on the screen. It is achingly beautiful to look at, some of the snow clad landscapes are the most breathtaking imagery I've seen in a cinema. It justs adds to the ever-present atmosphere of sinister malevolence.

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                #8
                Michael Haneke

                I just watched Code Unknown last night and I thought it was amazing really. Unlike either the Piano Teacher or Time Of The Wolf, which were just nasty - despite an amazing turn from Isabelle Hupert in both.

                Code Unknown and Hidden are two of the best films I've seen about class and racial divides in Europe, in the sense that they're totally believable, unpatronising and don't offer any kind of platitudes or easy answers. They are like the antithesis of Crash - possibly the worst film about race since Soul Man.

                I think I understand what Lyra's saying about Funny Games, as the closer Haneke gets to a concrete message, the less effective he gets in portraying a believable model of society.

                I'd like to read something about the director and his work. Does anyone have any recommendations?

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                  #9
                  Michael Haneke

                  There was a profile in the New Yorker a few months' back; its behind a paywall sadly.

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                    #10
                    Michael Haneke

                    I knew I should have got a sub to the New Yorker last Xmas!

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                      #11
                      Michael Haneke

                      I really disagree with the double dissing of Time of the Wolf. I saw it at the BFI in the Haneke season and I think it was stupendous. Vivid imagery, difficult material, (and clearly referencing the Austrian/german/French past as much as the future) but thoughtful rigorous, beuatiful and not without hope.

                      Code Inconnu I like very much. The scene in the Metro is one of the most amazing pieces of mise-en-scene I know.

                      I don't like The Piano Teacher so much though.

                      I have a subscription to the NEW Yorker and can access the interview if you want. I'd recommend it. A bargain.

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                        #12
                        Michael Haneke

                        Saw The White Ribbon last night and can heartily add my recommendation to Nil Arshavin's. There were eight of us there, and we've been talking about it on and off ever since, and it was one of those films where I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep because I immediately started to go over various scenes in my mind. It's an evenly paced film throughout, and that could be viewed as a flaw - there's very little momentum, and at two and a half hours watching it eventually becomes as much as a struggle for the viewer as life evidently is for most of the characters. SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT And at the end, there's no disclosure, as such, which could be a letdown, but then that's not really the point if you remember the narrator's Brechtian disclaimer at the start. Overall though, it's a superb, subtly realised film about control, authoritarianism and rebellion, and one that will bear repeated viewing to fully appreciate cinematically.

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                          #13
                          Michael Haneke

                          I didn't think that Time Of The Wolf was bad, so much as I think I didn't really understand it.

                          You see, you say 'clearly' (with reference to Austrian/German history) and I know what you mean now but it honestly didn't occur to me. I'm not much of a cineaste.

                          I watched all the bonus material to The Piano Teacher, and I certainly seem to have not really understood the 'deeper meaning' to that either.

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                            #14
                            Michael Haneke

                            I thought the DVD extras to Cache were amazing, lots of in depth interviews with the man himself.

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