{"id":6570,"date":"2022-10-19T19:07:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T23:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=6570"},"modified":"2023-03-26T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T00:07:10","slug":"michael-hanekes-funny-games-confronts-audiences-with-the-violence-they-paid-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/michael-hanekes-funny-games-confronts-audiences-with-the-violence-they-paid-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Haneke’s Funny Games confronts audiences with the violence they paid for"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2b50<\/span>\u2b50<\/span>\u2b50<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/span>\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/span>\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/span>\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/span>\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\t\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/span>Rating: 3 out of 5.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

Director Michael Haneke<\/a> has made Funny Games<\/em> twice, a decade apart. They are essentially the same movie: nearly shot-for-shot, with the same title, similar music and location, and at least one of the actors physically resembling one of the original cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The few adjustments include the spoken language, updated telephone technology, and added Americanisms. So this is not a case of a filmmaker completing a rough draft (as Michael Mann’s L.A. Takedown<\/a><\/em> was to Heat<\/em>), or reimagining a film (as Alfred Hitchcock did with The Man Who Knew Too Much<\/em>). So why recreate an earlier work in a fashion that hews so closely to the original?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The marketing images created for the 1997 and 2007 versions both utilize the stylistic fetishization of violence in popular entertainment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Haneke has frankly stated that both Funny Games<\/em> are his commentary upon violence in cinema, particularly American. His particular depiction of violence here is deliberately senseless, cruel, and unmotivated. The cyclical nature of the attacks is reflected in the very existence of the two films themselves. The remake is a sequel, or the sequel is a remake, just like the unimaginative popular entertainments that Haneke is satirizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the 2007 version, featuring internationally bankable stars Naomi Watts<\/a> (also a producer), Tim Roth, and Michael Pitt, allowed him to more directly confront English-speaking audiences with his cynical thesis. As if prophetic, the American home-invasion themed The Strangers<\/em> would be a box office success the very next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny Games<\/em> introduces us to a happily carefree family, immediately signaled as affluent and cultured. They own a vacation home, boat, and listen to classical music. Even their neighbors have refined taste; they are heard enjoying the downtown New York avant-garde musician John Zorn. The family is not unlikeable, but Haneke’s depiction of their easy privilege seems designed to invite either envy or eat-the-rich distaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class envy is certainly implied when they are shortly terrorized by home intruders: unsurprisingly a pair of young white men. Their choice of golf whites and equipment is no accident; perhaps only fencing accoutrement would have been more apt. Had either Funny Games<\/em> been made a mere few years later, critics would be analyzing these characters in the distressing language of today — disaffected male incel rage — and compared their appearance to the preppy white supremacists that rallied in Charlottesville, VA in 2017 with the fascistic Donald Trump’s open approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The obscurely-motivated home intruders from the 1997 (left) and 2007 (right) versions of the film.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Haneke, already known for employing the mechanics of cinema to indict or confront the audience in Cach\u00e9 (Hidden)<\/a><\/em>, does so here as well, albeit significantly less subtly. One character breaks the fourth wall five times:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. He winks at the camera during a childish yet sadistic hot\/cold game.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. He bets the family they will be dead in 12 hours, then turns to the camera and asks how the audience would bet, and whose side it’s on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. As the husband pleads for it to be over, he whines “But we’re not up to feature film length yet” and says the audience wants a “real ending”.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. He literally rewinds the film to alter events to a manner more satisfying to him.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. In the very last shot, he gazes directly at the camera again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    All suggesting one possible theory for his motive: his performative concern that audiences are suitably entertained and get their money’s worth — traditionally the role of the filmmaking, distribution, and marketing teams. Indeed, he seems at times to be directing and editing the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Even the marketing for each movie seems designed to comment upon the visual fetishization of violence in popular entertainment. The original poster depicts a child in bonds, and the latter a beautiful woman in distress, with her anguish and tears presented in a fetchingly artistic manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The intruders behave dispassionately and ritualistically, and when they are through with this family, they immediately move on to another. We never learn for sure what motivates them, if anything, so we are left to wonder about the film itself, and our culpability for paying to watch it — and other violent delights that the entertainment industry offers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Director Michael Haneke has made Funny Games twice, a decade apart. They are essentially the same movie: nearly shot-for-shot, with the same title, similar music and location, and at least one of the actors physically resembling one of the original cast. The few adjustments include the spoken language, updated telephone technology, and added Americanisms. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1992,2006,1268,2082,541,153,1094,2083],"class_list":["post-6570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-1992","tag-2006","tag-michael-haneke","tag-michael-pitt","tag-naomi-watts","tag-satire","tag-tim-roth","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/funny-games-golf.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1HY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":325,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/cache-hidden\/","url_meta":{"origin":6570,"position":0},"title":"Sometimes we are the camera in Michael Haneke’s Cach\u00e9 (Hidden)","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"An art-thriller directed by Michael Haneke, of whose previous films I've only seen Le Pianiste (The Piano Teacher). A major theme is that of video image-making (a main character is a television host) and surveilance. The interest in video images brings to mind the films of Atom Egoyan (Calendar, Felicia's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cach\u00c3\u00a9","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/cache-hidden-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/cache-hidden-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/cache-hidden-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/cache-hidden-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/cache-hidden-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5700,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/motherless-brooklyn-is-a-civics-lesson-wrapped-in-an-actorly-exercise\/","url_meta":{"origin":6570,"position":1},"title":"Motherless Brooklyn is a civics lesson wrapped in an actorly exercise","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I understand the generally negative reception that Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn encountered, but I didn't dislike it for two very mundane reasons: 1. 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Takedown is the rough draft for Michael Mann’s masterpiece Heat","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally, finally,\u00a0finally\u00a0had the opportunity to cross L.A. Takedown off my movie watchlist \u2014 a largely unavailable holy grail that I've been desperately curious to see for\u00a0years. If director Michael Mann had not reworked this material into the masterpiece Heat, L.A. Takedown would probably be pushed so far down his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"L.A. 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