Self Described as the anti-Tarantino film, Funny Games is perhaps Director Haneke’s most direct assault on American cinema. Taking the initial format of a home invasion thriller, Haneke seemingly never misses a beat when turning the audience’s expectations of top of their heads. An indicative example of this is early in the film is when a knife is inconsequentially dropped on the bottom of the vacationing family’s boat. Anyone who has seen a mainstream film can guess that this will eventually play some part in the film. But Haneke (much of the film finds him in a rare mood of playfulness) completely shits on the notion of such an unlikely convenience, by having one of the villains simply finding the knife later and tossing it into the lake. Thats that, case closed on the knife. Funny Games goes on like this, breaking all the conventions that viewers have lazily become content with.
As an exercise, this is one deviously Brechtian film. But its also superbly crafted, and indeed kind of funny in a deeply uneasy way (no doubt Haneke implicates the grotesqueness of the viewer for taking pleasure in watching any of this — the joke’s on me). The two home invaders, calling themselves Tom and Jerry (the pop culture skewering never lets up), are pretty horrifying in their passivity. Arno Frisch’s performance in particular is brilliant in its assuredness; his sly confiding with the audience (at one point he asks us, “Would you like me to rewind that for you?”) basically trivializes any subjective attachment we might have with the victimized family.
If you don’t have a strong stomach, Funny Games will surely be a distressful experience, and probably not the ideal introduction to the director’s work (Cache, despite its bizarreness, might be the easiest pill to swallow first). But if you can get past the film’s dubious politics, it really is the pinnacle of film snobbery and in its focus and academic no nonsense, something of a perfect film.
Rating 10/10
Addendum: Haneke, always keeping us on our toes, has already completed an American remake of Funny Games. The film is apparently shot for shot the same, which raises the question: could this be the first filmed oxymoron? Anyways, my country just got Punk’d.
0 Responses to “Funny Games”