The Cinema of Michael Haneke: Europe Utopia (Directors' Cuts)

Michael Haneke is one of the most important directors working in Europe today, with films such as __Funny Games__ (1997), __Code Unknown__ (2000), and __Hidden__ (2005) interrogating modern ethical dilemmas with forensic clarity and merciless insight. Haneke's films frequently implicate both the protagonists and the audience in the making of their misfortunes, yet even in the barren nihilism of __The Seventh Continent__ (1989) and __Time of the Wolf__ (2003) a dark strain of optimism emerges, releasing each from its terrible and inescapable guilt. It is this contingent and unlikely possibility that we find in Haneke's cinema: a utopian Europe. This collection celebrates, explicates, and sometimes challenges the worldview of Haneke's films. It examines the director's central themes and preoccupations―bourgeois alienation, modes and critiques of spectatorship, the role of the media―and analyzes otherwise marginalized aspects of his work, such as the function of performance and stardom, early Austrian television productions, the romanticism of __The Piano Teacher__ (2001), and the 2007 shot-for-shot remake of __Funny Games__. Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Contributors 9 Introduction by Ben McCann and David Sorfa 12 1. Domestic Invasion: Michael Haneke and Home Audiences 21 2. Acting, Performance and the Bressonian Impulse in Haneke's Films 35 3. Ethical Violence: Suicide as Authentic Act in the Films of Michael Haneke 49 4. Thinking the Event: The Virtual in Michael Haneke's Films 60 5. Michael Haneke and the Politics of Film Form 76 SPACE 94 6. Glocal Gloom: Existential Space in Haneke's French-Language Films 96 7. The Vacant Vacationer: Travel as Symptom and Antidote in Michael Haneke 105 8. Cosmopolitan Exteriors and Cosmopolitan Interiors: The City and Hospitality in Haneke's Code Unknown 116 UNSEEN HANEKE 126 9. The Early Haneke: Austrian Literature on Austrian Television 128 10. Tracing K: Michael Haneke's Film Adaptation of Kafka's Das Schloff 140 GLACIATION 150 11. Attentuating Austria: The Construction of Bourgeois Space in The Seventh Continent 152 12. Supermodernity, Sick Eros and the Video Narcissus: Benny's Video in the Course of Theory and Time 162 FUNNY GAMES 173 13. The Ethical Screen: Funny Games and the Spectacle of Pain 174 14. Superegos and Eggs: Repetition in Funny Games (1997, 2007) 183 15. From Culture to Torture, Music and Violence in Funny Games and The Piano Teacher 190 THE PIANO TEACHER 204 16. Images of Confinement and Transcendence: Michael Heneke's Reception of Romanticism in The Piano Teacher 206 17. Two Meanings of Masochism in the Language of the Art Critic 217 HIDDEN 234 18. Subject to Memory? Thinking after Hidden 236 19. Digital Cinema and teh "Schizophrenic" Image: The Case of Michael Haneke's Hidden 248 20. Hidden Shame Exposed: Hidden and the Spectator 258 THE WHITE RIBBON 268 21. The White Ribbon in Michael Haneke's Cinema 270 Filmography 276 Bibliography 284 Index 296 "Michael Haneke is one of the most important directors working in Europe today, with films such as Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown (2000), and Hidden (2005) interrogating modern ethical dilemmas with forensic clarity and merciless insight. Haneke's films frequently implicate both the protagonists and the audience in the making of their misfortunes, yet even in the barren nihilism of The Seventh Continent (1989) and Time of the Wolf (2003) a dark strain of optimism emerges, releasing each from its terrible and inescapable guilt. It is this contingent and unlikely possibility that we find in Haneke's cinema: a utopian Europe. This collection celebrates, explicates, and sometimes challenges the worldview of Haneke's films. It examines the director's central themes and preoccupations--bourgeois alienation, modes and critiques of spectatorship, the role of the media--and analyzes otherwise marginalized aspects of his work, such as the function of performance and stardom, early Austrian television productions, the romanticism of The Piano Teacher (2001), and the 2007 shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games."--Publisher Michael Haneke is one of the most important directors working in Europe today, with films such as Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown (2000), and Hidden (2005) interrogating modern ethical dilemmas with forensic clarity and merciless insight. Haneke's films frequently implicate both the protagonists and the audience in the making of their misfortunes, yet even in the barren nihilism of The Seventh Continent (1989) and Time of the Wolf (2003) a dark strain of optimism emerges, releasing each from its terrible and inescapable guilt. It is this contingent and unlikely possibility that we find in Haneke's cinema: a utopian Europe. This collection celebrates, explicates, and sometimes challenges the worldview of Haneke's films. It examines the director's central themes and preoccupations―bourgeois alienation, modes and critiques of spectatorship, the role of the media―and analyzes otherwise marginalized aspects of his work, such as the function of performance and stardom, early Austrian television productions, the romanticism of The Piano Teacher (2001), and the 2007 shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games . Michael Haneke is one of the most important directors working in Europe today. The Cinema of Michael Haneke offers a comprehensive examination of the director's central themes and preoccupations - bourgeois alienation, modes and critiques of spectatorship, the role of the media -and analyses hitherto marginalized aspects of Haneke's work