Summary:
A shot for shot remake of Haneke’s own 1997 film of the same name. Two young men hold a family hostage and use them to play sadistic games. Using postmodern techniques to subvert and distort audience expectation of genre conventions- the film can be viewed as deconstruction of how violence is portrayed on screen.
Analysis:
Note: this quote refers to the 1997 version of Funny Games but is equally relevant to the 2007 remake.
“...He establishes Funny Games as part of the suspense thriller genre in order to lull the spectator into a false feeling sense of security, stating that: ‘Elements from the history of the suspense thriller appear as quotes – the classic opening, the scene where the boy escapes to the villa – very classical, like Hitchcock. And the audience only engages with the film when they don’t know whats going to happen, when they allow themselves hope’...while the use of generic conventions within a film indicates to the audience the course that they can expect its narrative to take, it also serves as a guideline for what emotional response the specatator will take to that film.” (Wheatley, 2009:82)
Wheatley, C. (2009) Michael Haneke’s Cinema: The Ethnic of the Image. United States:Berghahn Books
Release:
2007
Director:
Michael Haneke
Screenplay by:
Michael Haneke
Genre/subgenre:
Thriller, Horror, Slasher
Country:
United States
Cast:
Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearheart
Selected Director Filmography:
The Seventh Continent, Benny’s Video, 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, Funny Games 1997, Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher, Time of the Wolf, Hidden, Funny Games U.S, The White Ribbon,
Related Films:
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