This was one strange film.
I mean, I know a lot of European filmmakers pride themselves with being anti-Hollywood, but this one took the cake.
The basic premise, for those who haven’t seen it, is a family - mom, dad and young son - go to their somewhat exclusive summer home for a few weeks. Right off the bat, two young guys, apparently friends of the neighbors, come over to borrow eggs for breakfast…psychological games begin and then the two young guys begin to terrorize the family. It turns into quite the sicko sadist role play and you think you know where this is going…
(Do not read the spoiler if you think you might ever see this film!)
But the trick is, this is NOT the Hollywood film. The two guys are pure evil and they play cat and mouse with each member of the family until son, mom and dad are all killed in a gruesome manner. The end of the film shows the two guys going to the next house early in the morning, asking to borrow eggs for breakfast.
I have to admit, a part of me hated this film, but another part of me says I will never forget this film either.
Just wondering if anybody else saw it, and what they thought about it.
I saw it a couple of years ago on IFC. Spectacular movie.
The great thing about the movie is:
The director is a sadist too. He tortures us into thinking that the kid has a chance to make it. And then he kills off the kid. And then he does the same with parents. The director is actually playing “Funny Games” with the audience. That’s what makes it such a great movie.
Whoa, this was one hella creepy movie. I saw it last night and in fact was just going to post about it when I saw this thread.
I wonder, though, if the director was a fan of “Run Lola Run”? (A great German movie which has NOTHING to do with the plot of this one…) I ask that because of the scene where:
Anna grabs the shotgun and blows a hole in Paul’s chest. The other psychopath (I forget his name) shouts, “NO!” then grabs the remote control and hits rewind, which causes the movie itself to back up until Paul is alive again, at which point he simply grabs the shotgun away from Anna.
The Europeans sure know how to make dark, disturbing films. Another one I saw was a French film called Man Bites Dog, a mock documentary about a serial killer who keeps a film crew with him. (That one was more of a comedy, though, since it was never believable for a second.)
I’ve no idea whether Haneke is a fan of Run Lola Run or not, but Funny Games predates it by a year (1997 vs. '98).
While I think his subsequent Code Inconnu is brilliant and La Pianiste partially so, Funny Games left me cold. It’s trying to play on the theme of audience complicity in film violence, but whenever the characters turn to confront the audience with the choices involved, my reaction was less guilt than “whatever”. I never quite cared enough to suspend disbelief, so the consequences meant nothing.
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Another one I saw was a French film called
I’ve no idea whether Haneke is a fan of Run Lola Run or not, but Funny Games predates it by a year (1997 vs. '98).
While I think his subsequent Code Inconnu is brilliant and La Pianiste partially so, Funny Games left me cold. It’s trying to play on the theme of audience complicity in film violence, but whenever the characters turn to confront the audience with the choices involved, my reaction was less guilt than “whatever” … I never quite cared enough to suspend disbelief, so the consequences meant nothing.
Offhand, I believe Man Bites Dog is actually Belgian. Again, somewhat obvious in its handling of the theme of violence. But meriting the distinction that it, along with Pasolini’s Salo, is one of the very few films that, while I don’t really regret seeing them (Salo in particular has some very good stuff), contain particular images that I wish I could forget. It’s not a film to be recommended lightly.
[Goodness knows what happened with that misfired post.]
I saw this movie too. Very disturbing. I looked up some criticism of the film on the internet later and found out that the diector was appraently trying to make a statement about the audience’s complicity in exploitive, violent films. There was even a quote by him to the effect of “anyone who walks out of this movie doesn’t need it, anyone who stays needs it.”
Parts of this movie are agonizing to watch. It’s extremely realistic and the acting is incredible. The director uses long, unbroken shots to great effect.
It’s funny that all the worst violence in the film takes place off screen. The movie doesn’t show any of the murders, and I found it interesting that the camera panned up for a head shot when the wife was forced to strip. It was like the director was taunting the audience by not showing the most prurient parts of the movie. They were sitting through a horrible, unrelenting nightmare but were not being given the gratuitous, guilty thrills that go along with a movie like this. This whole film was about contempt for the audience