The Cinema of Michael Haneke: Europe Utopia

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.

Author: Ben McCann
Publisher: Wallflower Press
Published: 05/29/2012
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781906660291
ISBN10: 1906660298
BISAC Categories:
- Performing Arts | Film | History & Criticism
- Performing Arts | Individual Director

About the Author
Ben McCann is lecturer in French studies at the University of Adelaide. David Sorfa is senior lecturer in film studies at Liverpool John Moores University and managing editor of the journal, Film-Philosophy.