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A number of critics have called Cache Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke’s most accessible film vis-à-vis his other works like Funny Games and The Piano Teacher, because of its lack of nerve-racking or incendiary contents. I, however, beg to differ for the simple reason that it’s intellectual depth far outweighs the other two works, making it a potent and an incisive precursor to his brilliant masterpiece The White Ribbon. A bourgeois Parisian family starts receiving tantalizingly menacing videotape recordings of their home from a mysterious stalker who may or may not have revenge in his mind. And that opens a can of worms from the husband George’s guilt-ridden past that threatens to rip apart his upwardly mobile family through introduction of such destructive germs as fear, paranoia and distrust. But at a broader level, the movie manages to go beyond that. The family’s ordeal forms the perfect allegory to France’s chequered colonial past making the film a powerful socio-political commentary. At the forefront of this work sans any background score lies the astounding performance of Daniel Auteuil as George. The climax will fascinate some, while leave others frustrated; but there’s no denying the movie’s ability to unsettle, disturb and provoke its audience.
Director: Michael Haneke
Genre: Drama/Urban Drama/Psychological Thriller
Language: French
Country: Austria
Michael Haneke’s latest feature, The White Ribbon, is an extraordinary work of high art. On surface viewing it appears to be a paradigm shift vis-à-vis the films Haneke has been mostly come to be identified with. The austere black-and-white appearance, combined with the somber tone and the nearly muted philosophical overtures are quite atypical of him. However, scratch deep and you’ll realise that the movie is as grim and as capable of provoking as any he has made, with themes like societal bigotry and the inevitability of violent eruptions even in the most peaceful of conditions playing vital roles. A psychologically haunting and visually ravaging film, the Austrian provocateur has attempted to unravel the cause of World War I though this complex, pseudo-mystery character study. As a series of seemingly inexplicable and unfortunate incidents start occurring in a small, paternalistic, and heavily orthodox German village, the veneer of civility and placidity that initially marked the villagers starts wearing off, revealing a snarl that is frightening in its display of hypocrisy, moral policing and repression. The movie has been presented through the eyes of a pleasant-natured and liberal outsider. The movie raises far more questions than it ever seeks to answer, and that, along with the implosive content and themes, makes for an arresting if disconcerting viewing experience.
Director: Michael Haneke
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Mystery
Language: German
Country: Austria
There’s often a trend among filmgoers to dismiss a movie like Bad Timing, Antichrist or The Piano Teacher simple because they are unabashed enough to present matter which is difficult and challenging to sit through, without really giving the movies their due. Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke’s sixth directorial effort, The Piano Teacher, like his Funny Games, forces the audience as well as the characters to take a trip to the very edge of sanity and reason, through such dark and disturbing by-lanes as obsession, sadomasochism, voyeurism and repression. Erika, played unflinchingly and brilliantly by Isabelle Huppert, is a frigid middle-aged classical-piano teacher at a music conservatory. She loves Schubert, but she also has kinky obsessions, which, when spelt out to her much younger student who has become infatuated with her, leads to shocking, catastrophic consequences and an incredibly bleak climax. In the meantime she lives with a domineering mother whose presence in her life might have been the reason for her being what she is. The movie is elegantly shot, and has its fair share of Schubert renditions, that are in direct contrast to the psychological tussles that define the complex mother-daughter and the destructive older woman-younger guy relationships.
Director: Michael Haneke
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: French
Country: Austria/France
Gotz Spielmann, who won rave reviews for the extraordinary Revanche, earlier directed this equally stark and grim movie that, along with Revanche, manages to be highly indicative of his terrific grip over the medium. In fact, though not many might be able to appreciate this comparison, I’d say his choice of subject and storytelling bear striking similarity to Bengali auteur Rituparno Ghosh. Inspired by the narrative structure of Ameros Perros, Antares tells the interconnected tales of individuals brought together by a car accident. The movie, without ever taking a stance on the morality or motives of the characters, has managed to marvelously bring forth the lurking sadness and complexities in their seemingly mundane lives, and paint a wonderfully layered picture of the Austrian urban milieu. In fact, Vienna could very well be replaced with any metropolis of the world and yet the relevance of the story would remain the same, such is the universality of the themes of human loneliness and man’s futile attempts at connecting to someone, anyone, in hopes of not dying alone. The unrelentingly heavy subject matter, the languorous pacing that is quintessentially European Art Cinema, and the singular lack of any background score might be off-putting to many, but I found the movie far more gripping than most thrillers. And the fact that the acting is consistently first rate throughout made viewing the movie that much more engaging.
Director: Gotz Spielmann
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Urban Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Austrian
Country: Austria
Funny Games might not be Austrian director Michael Haneke’s best movie, but it sure as hell is the one he will be remembered by. The skeleton of the plot might sound overtly conventional – a family, while on vacation at their idyllic retreat, is taken hostage by a pair of sweet-talking, albeit mercilessly sadistic sociopaths; nonetheless, it doesn’t take long for one to realize that this is as far removed from the assembly-line of popcorn psycho thrillers (particularly the American ones) as can be. It is a vicious body blow to our pop culture, our mass media, and in turn our lives, violence has become a daily diet of which – a theme earlier propounded by Oliver Stone in his equally notorious Natural Born Killers. The acting is very good throughout, not just of the couple (the role of the husband has been played by the brilliant Ulrich Mühe of The Lives of Others fame), but also of the two young guys whose outwardly normal dispositions and their seemingly not having any reason for inflicting the kind of mayhem that they do, have made their characters chilling personifications of evil. However, I must finish with the statement that, despite the movie’s cult fame, it could have been far more effective had it slightly cut down on the pretentiousness front – the ‘rewind’ scene, the talking to the camera and the deeply ambiguous ending are a bit of a turnoff.
Director: Michael Haneke
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Psychological Horror
Language: German
Country: Austria
In an age of hyperkinetic narratives, the Austrian movie Revanche, with its leisured pace, might appear anachronistic to many. A character drama of the first order, the movie is about a former convict’s inner turbulence as to whether he should (or should not) seek revenge against the cop who accidentally killed his fiancé. Where revenge flicks go, it is absolutely antithetical to the likes of such explosive movies as Oldboy and A Bittersweet Life. Rather, what we have is an implosive character study of a man, stuck by a stroke of sudden misfortune, waiting to explode with cold, simmering fury. At the backbone of this extraordinarily gripping drama lie solid performances, grim realism, bleak, deglamourised vignettes and a deep sense of tragedy pervading the characters – factors that have made it structurally very similar to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (interestingly, like the Romanian masterpiece, this movie too is nearly completely bereft of any background score). Though never overtly expressive, the movie, nonetheless, is emotionally charged, with violence almost bursting through the seams. This brilliant, gloomy crime drama has really upped my interest for Gotz Spielmann, the movie’s director. By the way, on hindsight, the first half of the movie might appear to be a MacGuffin to many, but I feel it acted as a vital driver to what followed – both plot-wise and character-wise.
Director: Gotz Spielmann
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama
Language: German/Russian
Country: Austria
