Fascinatingly Disturbing

by Alexander Darius Ornella (Editor), Stefanie Knauss (Editor)

Overview

Michael Haneke is one of Europe's most successful and controversial film directors. Awarded the Palme d'Or and numerous other international awards. Haneke has contributed to and shaped contemporary auteur cinema and is becoming more and more popular among academics and cinephiles. His mission is as noble as it is provocative: he wants "to rape the audience into independence," to wake them up from the lethargy caused by the entertainment industry. The filmic language he employs in this mission is both highly characteristic and efficient, and yet his methods are open to criticism for their violence toward and manipulation of the audience. The aim of this book is to analyze critically Haneke's aesthetics, his message, as well as his ethical motivation from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective. Contributors to the book come from a variety of academic disciplines and cultural backgrounds-European and North American.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606086247
Publisher:	Pickwick Publications
Publication date:	04/07/2010
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Alexander D. Ornella is Research Fellow at the Institute of Fundamental Theology, Graz University (Austria). He is the author of Das vernetzte Subjekt (2010).

Stefanie Knauss is Research Fellow at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Centro per le Science Religiose, Trento (Italy). She is the author of Transcendental Bodies (2008).

Together they edited Reconfigurations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion in a Post-Secular Society (2008).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Alexander D. Ornella Stefanie Knauss 1

Voices

1 "We Live in a Permanent State of War": An Interview with Michael Haneke by Franz Grabner Franz Grabner 13

2 How Much Haneke Do We Deserve? Against Sadistic-Philosophical Tendencies in Filmmaking Charles Martig 34

Traces

3 Theology, Aesthetics, and Film: Theological Prolegomena and their Application to the Work of Michael Haneke Gerhard Larcher 43

4 Stasis: Walking the Border between Michael Haneke and Paul Schrader Christian Wessely 63

5 Guilt and Sin in the Work of Michael Haneke Michael Hoelzl 82

Off

6 Pieces of Truth for Moments of Death in Michael Haneke's Cinema Serge Goriely 103

7 Just Like a Prayer: Michael Haneke and the Mise-en-scène of Praying Davide Zordan 125

8 Cat and Mouse: Haneke's Joy in the Spectator's Distress Alexander D. Ornella 145

Dialogue

9 The Marriage of Past and Present: Intertextuality in Fassbinder and Haneke Oliver C. Speck 169

10 Auteurism and the Aesthetics of Irritation: Haneke, von Trier, and Lynch Scott Loren Jörg Metelmann 196

11 A Game Gone Wrong or a Perversion? Sex in Haneke's Cinema and in Dumont's Twentynine Palms Stefanie Knauss 217

Constructions

12 On Puzzles and Scores: A Reading of Space in Michael Haneke's 71 Fragments Monica Filimon 239

13 Surveillance and Voyeurism in Haneke's Code Unknown and Caché Andrea Gogröf-Voorhees 259

14 Ethical Solicitations and the Film Poetics of Michael Haneke's Caché Alyda Faber 282

15 The Struggle for Identity, or Michael Haneke's Filmography: A Study of Caché Florian Mittl 309

Filmography 329

Contributors 331

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Sex and art, sin and guilt, religion and violence, this book has it all. With its focus on Haneke's enigmatic filmmaking, Ornella and Knauss have provided a great service by pulling together multiple issues relevant to contemporary life. Starting with the view of the world seen through Haneke's lens, the authors here provide their own lenses onto Haneke's work, keeping the readers fascinated and disturbed."
—S. Brent Plate author of Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-creation of the World

"The superbly structured Ornella/Knauss collection will stand apart from other new Haneke anthologies for an unconventional mix of examinations that are not in a rush to respond to trendy discourse or even to take on the director as phenomenon. The text gives Haneke a voice in the proceedings but also asks 'How Much Haneke Do We Deserve.' The presentations located between these two poles make for a truly vibrant investigation that is as excitingly daring as the writing is elegant."
—Robert von Dassanowsky author of Austrian Cinema: A History

Editorial Reviews

"Sex and art, sin and guilt, religion and violence, this book has it all. With its focus on Haneke's enigmatic filmmaking, Ornella and Knauss have provided a great service by pulling together multiple issues relevant to contemporary life. Starting with the view of the world seen through Haneke's lens, the authors here provide their own lenses onto Haneke's work, keeping the readers fascinated and disturbed."
—S. Brent Plate author of Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-creation of the World

"The superbly structured Ornella/Knauss collection will stand apart from other new Haneke anthologies for an unconventional mix of examinations that are not in a rush to respond to trendy discourse or even to take on the director as phenomenon. The text gives Haneke a voice in the proceedings but also asks 'How Much Haneke Do We Deserve.' The presentations located between these two poles make for a truly vibrant investigation that is as excitingly daring as the writing is elegant."
—Robert von Dassanowsky author of Austrian Cinema: A History

From the Publisher