Funny Games

Funny Games

Funny Games

Funny Games

Moviecut—Funny Games

A little over a month ago, I saw a film called "Devil". In it, a group of people are stuck in an elevator that has come to a dead stop, presumably because the presence of the devil is in with them. Throughout the movie, the people act dumb and just stand there wondering what to do, as opposed to actually doing anything, getting slaughtered one by one. They just START to act towards the end, and that's mainly when we find out who the Devil in question is. If you're following me, you should have a similar idea of what Funny Games is like. A family of 3 go on vacation to a nearby lake. They're a perfectly happy family, or so it seems. That is until the backstreet boys... whoops, I mean two boys visit them and they're all nice. Apparently the ma has had enough of them, and even getting the pop to remove them won't work. How do they respond? Whacking him in the leg. WITH A GOLF CLUB. The dad COULD respond by fighting back. Instead, he just moans and groans and hugs his leg because he's so scared he's going to get killed by the evil golf club of doom. I will also point out that there are 2 bags worth of golf clubs, but the wife is dumb enough not to GRAB ONE AND USE IT AS DEFENSE. Throughout all this pointless time of fourth wall breaking and pretentiousness, the family could be responding by fighting back, but no, all they can do is weep and moan at the evil golf club of doom. The wife is forced to strip down and the son is blasted away with a shot gun, all because they couldn't do anything to defend themselves. Oh, but then the two creeps leave for a short period of time. Good, they can do something to defend themselves, right? Like, grab one of the kitchen knives, create a barricade,or best of all, GET IN THE CAR AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, right? No. NO. Capital N, Capital O. Instead they spend what seems like an hour blowdrying a phone. When they can use it, instead of saying something like "911, police!!! Two crazy teenagers are invading our home!!! Please get to (address) as soon as possible!!!", they spend what seems like an eternity shouting "HELLO???? HELLO????" into the phone. And because of it, when the two psychos come back, it's back to the game. Oh, I will give the mom credit for manning up and grabbing the gun!!! Oh wait, she only shot one of them and because she apparently, for unknown reasons to the viewer, can't shoot the other, the other grabs a remote and rewinds it. I KID YOU NOT. I could go on and on, but I'm just getting angry about it. I, for once, am getting tired of movies where a group of people is terrorized and they aren't smart enough to defend themselves. Apparently this was the intention of Haneke, as he usually beats his viewer over the head with the theme because we're too dumb and can only watch a simplified story. Either way, avoid this trash. The only thing more terrifying than two teenage boys terrorizing a family with a golf club is a house full of morons who aren't smart enough to defend themselves.

Ok, I get it. But get this: making this movie is an act of sadism directed at an audience no more deserving of its suffering than the victims in the film itself. Mr. Haneke is lucky I never saw this before I bothered to see the rest of his 'ouevre'. He's one filmmaker who is now in my viewing Siberia....out of reach, out of touch, out of mind.

In this cross between Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf and A Clockwork Orange, two insolent young psychopaths torment a vacationing family. It was hard to organize my thoughts on this movie, never mind rating it. As a thriller, this is a tense, well-acted, and relentless experience, marred only by a contrived sequence two-thirds through in which characters behave in unbelievably stupid fashion. However, said sequence is preceded by an incredibly effective ten-minute take. Unusually lengthy takes are often deemed self-indulgent, but this one is anything but. As an ideological statement, though, this film is a failure. And there is no doubt that writer-director Michael Haneke is trying to make a statement. By having one of the psychos address the camera a few times, saying things to the effect that they have to give the viewers their money's worth, Haneke is essentially wagging his finger at anyone who has ever enjoyed the portrayal of violence in a film. This theme is certainly open to debate, but the problem is that Haneke expresses it in such a condescending way. His harrowing treatment of violence already serves as an excellent counterpoint to other films that glamorize it. There was no need to then leave viewers feeling as though they'd just been lectured by a stern parent. The last time a filmmaker made me angry, it was when I saw Independence Day, and it was for the same reason. In both cases, the writer and the director display contempt by assuming their audiences are idiots. My anger didn't really ignite, though, until I watched a short interview with Haneke on the DVD. It made me never want to see another one of his films. The man is disgustingly full of himself. So why the relatively high rating? Because as pretentious and self-important as Haneke is, he is also very talented. The movie is very effective on an emotional level, and it's possible to watch it while ignoring the director's wrong-headed decisions.

This supposedly shocking, humorless and grim thriller is about an affluent couple (Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Muhe) and their young son, whose attempt at a peaceful retreat is turned into a nightmare. While vacationing at a remote and (so they think) ultra-secure lakeside home, the family is tormented by two clean-cut young men who initially stop by to borrow a few eggs, then won't leave. They try to provoke violence, break the dad's leg with a golf club, kill their dog, make the mother strip and lie about being gay, having horrible childhoods and being drug addicts for a motive (although it's made quite clear that they don't have or necessarily need one). When asked why, one says "Why not?" and it's all for "entertainment value." The commentary here, I suppose, is to illustrate that society is often pointlessly brutal and sadistic, and there's no real way to pinpoint an exact cause for the increasing violence in the world. Apparently the director is also doing some finger pointing of his own toward "desensitized" audiences who enjoy lapping up simulated violence in their popular entertainment, as well as those who tune into the nightly news to get the scoop on all the real-life horror stories taking place. In taking on this kind of material, Haneke creates the exact kind of film he is demonizing, which will make this a tough sell to certain people. Who doesn't look at the car accident site while they're passing by hoping to see what happened to the poor sucker involved in the wreck? Who doesn't see a violent scenario playing out in a film or on a TV show and stop to take a look? Most of us do... In my estimation, it's completely natural and healthy to fill one's morbid curiosity about the darker aspects of life and death via film, art and music. I'm not entirely sure what the point is in making us feel bad or guilty about it. If the director is simply wondering why violence and horror are so appealing to the masses, then his film completely lacks any insight, depth or psychological credibility when it comes to that topic. There's some flashy direction, but unfortunately, a lot of it just doesn't work... like long, unbroken takes that seem to go on for hours and a character who talks to the camera ("Is that enough?") and then grabs a remote and rewinds the movie after something doesn't go his way. This was an official selection at Cannes and has a fan following, but I found it unpleasant, pretentious and downright boring at times, and it's nothing that numerous other films didn't already do (and do better) in the early 1970s.

Mr Haneke seems to love observing family member characters dealing with extreme situations. On one hand we have a typical family which one could call civilized, and on the other hand two young violent sadists. The two worlds are opposed to each other, but then in reality they meet everyday in every part of the world. Their difference is the difference of classical music and black metal (both musical styles can be listened in this movie)...But yet, what is the difference of a normal humorous pretty bomber pilot with Paul and Fatty? They both guarantee a fatal sadistic without hope end. Maybe some people have these realities inside them too. Yet Mr Haneke did not present the beauty of violence as Hollywood movies would (mainstream or Tarantino), nor he directed an hymn to violence as it is clearly seen in "Clockwork orange". The "normal" watcher sympathizes the normal family. On the contrary in real life situation, maybe reading through a newspaper or watching TV, he would feel sympathy for them for 5 minutes. The power of "evil" is presented unquestionable. No hope can survive, even time rewinds and cannot beat the violent (re)actions of these young monsters. The personalities of Paul and Fatty are very interesting as in the end they express some questionable pseydophilosophies. What's their difference again with Nazis and current aggressive wars? Maybe this is a reference to Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux"... The movie can also be seen through the "shocking effect" theory. We question the strength of the family especially father’s protectiveness, but we miss the point that in reality people with normal lifes become easily victims, one can say they are conformists. The shock is less intense for a person who lives an abnormal life and is ready to protest against violence... The actors perform excellently. One must be ready for a "disturbing" movie no happy end, no cheap Hollywood violin music, no Deus ex machina, but as it was written above this is an every day incident...We cannot expect from people who are hypnotized all their lifes by "happy endings and superheroes" to credit this movie.

From the opening credits, "Funny Games" is already playing tricks on the audience: as the film's family/victims drive to their summer home, listening to classical music, Haneke splices freakout thrash metal over shots of their unsuspecting faces. But what truly impressed me about this film wasn't the slight gimmicks (of which there are plenty, some more successful than others) but the muted, unobtrusive style in which the film is shot. Extremely long takes (like the first egg scene, or the harrowing, sparse shot of the father sitting in his living room floor, howling for his dead son) combined with elegant cinematography and lighting ( I liked how quite subtly the family's first interrogation grew darker and darker, until Paul commented upon it and turned on the lamp) never makes the camera feel an aloof presence to a choreographed scene. That is, until Paul turns, and in a Goddardian aside, winks knowingly at the camera's eye. At which point the audience is instantly implicated in the vicious proceedings. It seems here that most people get caught up in trying to explain the film's intentions. "Funny Games" isn't a film so much as a cinematic exercise in the spurious shock of violence on the silver screen. Gone are all the scapegoats of plot or genre conventions that would help make the audience feel vindicated or justified in watching, say, a man get shot because earlier he raped the film's protagonist, etc. But Haneke's film doesn't shock for the simple exploitative aspect either. When the mother is forced to strip before her torturers, the audience is kept just as blind to the proceedings as the young boy. Likewise, we don't witness the child's murder, but hear it off screen, as Paul is making himself something to eat. The films shock therefore comes not only from the brutal torture scenes but the intense apathy conveyed not only by the purposeless killers but the lack of cinematic conviction commonly combined with narrative violence, a point all the more reinforced with the film's final murder. As Peter and Paul are sailing back into the harbor, Paul comments how seeing violence in a film is no different than witnessing it in real life. The violence portrayed in "Funny Games" is so unnerving not because of any excessive display of exploitative gore, but for the exact opposite: the banal regularity of which such atrocities occur. "Funny Games" is anything but...but as is proven by the scores of reader responses, it's sure to provoke some reaction. Whether you think its fascinating or revolting, regardless it makes you think.