Funny Games: A Critical Essay on a 1/2 Dimentional Film

[the_baxter]

Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke, sure thinks a lot of his "ideas". He has come to the conclusion that people have not only become desensitized to violence, but that we crave it in our cinema. And that makes us jerks. Jerks who must be punished. By him.

The punishment comes in the form of Funny Games, a film deemed so important by the filmmaker

Comments

[maxthedork]

Don't know if you've ever seen the original, but this remake is a shot-for-shot remake of the original. So what you're seeing in this one, Haneke did in the first. Also, when I see Michael Pitt, I can only think of Tommy Gnosis in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Also his part in Murder By Numbers was pretty creepy

[the_baxter]

Ironic for Haneke that his original spawned the modern torture film since he says he made that as a criticism of films like Natural Born Killers.

I did see Audition. Very disturbing.

[marktapiokines]

I first heard about (the original) Funny Games at the Claustrophobia premiere in 2003. Somebody told me that my film reminded him of it, and so I sought it out. I'd already seen Haneke's The Piano Teacher, which I thought was OK but a film absolutely steeped in sadism, so I expected more of the same and got it.

Thing is, both The Piano Teacher and Haneke's later Caché, though both overrated, are still subtler, vaguer films about torturing the middle class. So the direct addresses in Funny Games seemed like early, overly obvious, and entirely amateurish decisions - you'd think by 2007 Haneke would have improved. And as a filmmaker, I can't imagine revisiting my own work 11 years later and not finding loads of stuff to improve upon. The fact that Haneke redid Funny Games shot for shot reeks of either OCD or pure arrogance - as if the 1997 original was perfectly shot in every way. At least tell me Michael Pitt hits the reverse button on a DVD player and not the rewind on a VCR.

And again, Funny Games was first made in 1997, so it's not

[maxthedork]

I like NBK but only in a totally gratuitous way. Oliver Stone as a filmmaker is overrated, especially in his own mind. He's had some good film moments but his execution is this forced Hollywood version of an art film that comes off as such. Handheld camera shots, high-contrast, color filters, come on, Oliver, did you raid the film department at Berkeley? Everything he does screams "This one's going to Cannes!" But what he fails to realize is that the best films at Cannes are the ones that don't TRY to get to Cannes. They just are.

[the_baxter]

I agree with you completely re: Oliver Stone. I think Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis were entirely responsible for making that movie as cool as it is. Well, that and the soundtrack.

[the_baxter]

Ew! Somebody compared Claustrophobia to Funny Games? Of course I totally disagree but I'm sure they thought they were paying you a compliment.

I think that breaking the fourth wall works SOMETIMES, but you definitely have to be ballsy to do it. The only example of good execution that I can think of at the moment is High Fidelity.

Michael Pitt just says "where's the remote?" and rewinds with it. It could be DVD or DVR. It's not specified. But it does have that squeaky backwards sound which you don't get with either DVD or DVR. Is that for comedic effect or just a factual error?

The fact that Haneke redid Funny Games shot for shot reeks of either OCD or pure arrogance - as if the 1997 original was perfectly shot in every way.

You're so right. I didn't even think about that point. So much to hate about this film.