Michael Haneke isn’t all that well know to American audiences, and its a shame as I would argue that he is the best director currently working in film. He manipulates the screen in a way few directors can, not by bending audiences to his will but by actually engaging them. That he uses themes and genres that are often considered mindless entertainment is even more impressive, and has lead to many people not really understanding his actual purpose.
When Haneke remade his film Funny Games, about a family whose house is overrun and terrorized by two sociopathic teens it was assumed that Haneke made the film because he hates violence and was preaching against violence in film. But Haneke has no issue with violence in films, for most of his films as disturbingly violent, but rather how violence is fetishized. He uses violence to engage the audience, or if need be, shake them out of their stupor. Which is why the true victim in Funny Games is the audience, as Haneke slowly shifts the events of the film from the screen directly into the auditorium. He didn’t want to make yet another slasher film where the audience giggles with glee at the fool onscreen, but rather drags the audience unwittingly into the terror they would typically dismiss and scoff at.
Which brings us to his latest film, The White Ribbon, which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and has been receiving huge acclaim as being yet another masterpiece from a director who seems to churn them out with relative ease. It is a film about a small town in Germany in 1913. An authoritarian town, where the children are subjected to rigid rules and even harsher punishments. But something even more sinister might be occurring. And could the children possibly be behind it?
A huge amount of new additions this week, with the headliner clearly being Michael Haneke’s newest film, and the most recent Golden Palm winner, White Ribbon. And while that is my most anticipated, I am also eagerly awaiting Men Who Stare at Goats, Ong Bak 2 (I don’t care what you say Joe), Up in the Air and The Fantastic Mr Fox.
In other news, I have left Landmark for Kerasotes. Thursday was my final day with Landmark, and I made sure to have a nice break in between the two jobs by having Friday be my first day with Kerasotes. I had a blast working at Landmark, but Kerasotes offered me an opportunity that I simply couldn’t let pass by. I’ll still be doing the Coming Soon announcements for Landmark, as several of the managers have been nice enough to keep sending me the lists so I can post them, but don’t be surprised if more Kerasotes information starts to creep in the occassional post.
*** – Denotes recommended viewing
All dates subject to change
11/06 Antichrist Uptown***
11/06 Men Who Stare At Goats Lagoon (NEW)***
11/06 Flame & Citron Edina (NEW DATE)
11/13 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning Uptown (NEW)***
11/13 Crude Lagoon
11/13 Gentlemen Broncos Lagoon***
11/13 Skin Edina (tentative)
11/20 (Untitled) Uptown/Lagoon (NEW DATE)
11/20 We Live in Public Lagoon
11/20 Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Lagoon
11/20 The Messenger Edina
11/25 Red Cliff Uptown (NEW DATE)
11/25 The Road Edina***
11/25 The Fantastic Mr Fox Lagoon (NEW)***
11/27 Oh My God? Lagoon
12/04 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Uptown ***
12/11 Up in the Air Lagoon (NEW)***
12/11 The Strip Lagoon
12/11 Me and Orson Welles Edina (NEW)
12/18 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe Lagoon (NEW DATE)
12/18 The Maid Lagoon/Edina
12/18 Young Victoria Edina
12/25 Broken Embraces Uptown
12/25 Nine Lagoon
12/25 A Single Man Lagoon/Edina
1/08 The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus Lagoon ***
1/22 White Ribbon Uptown/Lagoon (NEW)***
2/12 Rashomon Lagoon***
2/12 The Station Edina (NEW)
2/19 Oscar Nominated Shorts Lagoon (NEW)***
2/26 44 Inch Chest Lagoon
3/12 A Prophet Uptown (NEW)
3/12 A Town Called Panic Lagoon (NEW)
Most people know that I am a huge fan of Michael Haneke’s films. They are incredible films that manipulate the hell out of the audience, and are breaking all sorts of new grounds for the horror genre. Most wouldn’t consider his films to be horror films, but I can’t see them as anything else. They are so effective are drawing the viewers straight into the lives of his celluloid creations and implicating them along side hem in the terrible events that are foretold on screen.
Unfortunately, Haneke isn’t much of a name here in the US, as his film Funny Games is the closest thing to well known release as he has had so far, which is a shame. Thankfully Europe, and especially France, loves the crap out of his movies, and his most recent film, The White Ribbon, followed up on his past successes by winning the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize this past year, the Palme d’Or.
I don’t know much about the film, other then it is set sometime around World War I and focuses on a German children’s choir. Haneke has proclaimed that the film is about “the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature.” I’m not sure what he is going to do with that setup, nor do I understand a single word in the trailer, but I’m quite confident I’ll be coming out of the theatre absolutely destroyed after watching this film.
Anna isn’t typically a fan of most of the movies I pick out to watch. Since I tend to gravitate towards genre and exploitation films, which are prone to bouts of graphic violence and the occasional derogatory nudity, and she finds both stupider then stupid. It has gotten to the point that she simply assumes that any film that gravitates to the top of our queue is over populated with T&A and gore. So when Peeping Tom crept towards the coveted top spot she was noticeably leery. With such a salacious title, how could it not be a film that focused on gratuitous sex and nudity? But Peeping Tom had something far more disturbing in store for me.
Peeping Tom was something unlike anything audiences had ever seen when it was released. Focusing on a killer that used his daytime job as a photographer as a way to get closer to models, actresses and even the occasional streetwalker in order to kill them. Using a concealed razor sharp spike within the tripod of his camera, he slowly stalks his prey as they cower in fear, and just before he kills them he shows them something which serves to further fuel his murderous desires. But what was he showing them that causes them to be powerless with fear?
Now I am probably one of the small handful of people who enjoyed Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. I was there opening night and saw it with a few friends and all of us liked it to varying degrees. Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly capable of admitting that there are major flaws with the film, and that those flaws make Book of Shadows a difficult film to appreciate on a surface level. And it was that bitter pill that ended up sinking a potentially fascinating franchise. But lurking beneath the surface were characteristics and themes that I wish more sequels would aspire to. (more…)
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