The Cinema of Michael Haneke: Europe Utopia

by Ben McCann (Editor), David Sorfa (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906660291
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Series:	Directors' Cuts
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Contributors viii

Introduction Ben McCann David Sorfa 1

1 Domestic Invasion: Michael Haneke and Home Audiences Catherine Wheatley 10

2 Acting, Performance and the Bressonian Impulse in Haneke's Films Ben McCann 24

3 Ethical Violence: Suicide as Authentic Act in the Films of Michael Haneke Lisa Coulthard 38

4 Thinking the Event: The Virtual in Michael Haneke's Films Oliver C. Speck 49

5 Michael Haneke and the Politics of Film Form Temenuga Trifonova 65

Space

6 Glocal Gloom: Existential Space in Haneke's French-Language Films Kate Ince 85

7 The Vacant Vacationer: Travel as Symptom and Antidote in Michael Haneke Christopher Justice 94

8 Cosmopolitan Exteriors and Cosmopolitan Interiors: The City and Hospitality in Haneke's Code Unknown Paula E. Geyh 105

Unseen Haneke

9 The Early Haneke: Austrian Literature on Austrian Television Deborah Holmes 117

10 Tracing K: Michael Haneke's Film Adaptation of Kafka's Das Schloβ Willy Riemer 129

Glaciation

11 Attenuating Austria: The Construction of Bourgeois Space in The Seventh Continent Benjamin Noys 141

12 Supermodernity, Sick Eros and the Video Narcissus: Benny's Video in the Course of Theory and Time Manias Frey 151

Funny Games

13 The Ethical Screen: Funny Games and the Spectacle of Pain Alex Gerbaz 163

14 Superegos and Eggs: Repetition in Funny Games (1997, 2007) David Sorfa 172

15 From Culture to Torture: Music and Violence in Funny Games and The Piano Teacher Landon Palmer 179

The Piano Teacher

16 Images of Confinement and Transcendence: Michael Haneke's Reception of Romanticism in The Piano Teacher Felix W. Tweraser 195

17 Two Meanings of Masochism in the Language of the Art Critic Iuliana Corina Vaida 206

Hidden

18 Subject to Memory? Thinking after Hidden Nemonie Craven Roderick 225

19 Digital Cinema and the 'Schizophrenic' Image: The Case of Michael Haneke's Hidden Ricardo Domizio 237

20 Hidden Shame Exposed: Hidden and the Spectator Tarja Laine 247

The White Ribbon

21 The White Ribbon in Michael Haneke's Cinema John Orr 259

Filmography 265

Sources and Bibliography 273

Index 285

What People are Saying About This

Owen Evans

Following a string of successful, and highly provocative films that have won significant critical acclaim and no little commercial success, Haneke has become one of the most debated auteurs of recent years. Sorfa and McCann have assembled an impressive array of scholars in this volume, which both provides a timely and accessible introduction to Haneke's work for those as yet unfamiliar with him, and makes a significant contribution to high-quality scholarship on the director. A valuable addition to the Directors' Cuts series, it is sure to become a well-thumbed tome on library bookshelves around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Haneke deserves this collection of far-ranging, sophisticated, and allusive scholarship. The book should deepen any critical approach to his work.... Highly recommended.

Choice

Following a string of successful, and highly provocative films that have won significant critical acclaim and no little commercial success, Haneke has become one of the most debated auteurs of recent years. Sorfa and McCann have assembled an impressive array of scholars in this volume, which provides both a timely and accessible introduction to Haneke's work for those as yet unfamiliar with him, and makes a significant contribution to high-quality scholarship on the director. A valuable addition to the Directors' Cuts series, it is sure to become a well-thumbed tome on library bookshelves around the world.

Owen Evans