Funny Games U.S. (2007)
Country: FR/GB/GER/IT/US/OST
Technical: col 111m
Director: Michael Haneke
Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Synopsis:
A couple and their young son travel to their lakeside country house for a spot of sailing and notice a pair of strangers with their neighbours, who themselves are acting strangely. Before long they are the helpless detainees of two impeccably dressed and mannered young sociopaths.
Review:
Haneke's remake of his own film follows the latter's template closely and is strictly an English version for the notoriously illiterate American audience most in need of its lessons. The callous behaviour of its 'villains' is unexplained; indeed the director breaks all the rules of thriller cinema, not least the possibility of individual action to redress the balance of power, and offers no hope or retribution. The result is that we are forced to remind ourselves that we are watching an entertainment, a concoction devised for our viewing pleasure, and if it doesn't please us, why are pleased by its conventional twin? Significantly, the violence here takes place off screen.
Country: FR/GB/GER/IT/US/OST
Technical: col 111m
Director: Michael Haneke
Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Synopsis:
A couple and their young son travel to their lakeside country house for a spot of sailing and notice a pair of strangers with their neighbours, who themselves are acting strangely. Before long they are the helpless detainees of two impeccably dressed and mannered young sociopaths.
Review:
Haneke's remake of his own film follows the latter's template closely and is strictly an English version for the notoriously illiterate American audience most in need of its lessons. The callous behaviour of its 'villains' is unexplained; indeed the director breaks all the rules of thriller cinema, not least the possibility of individual action to redress the balance of power, and offers no hope or retribution. The result is that we are forced to remind ourselves that we are watching an entertainment, a concoction devised for our viewing pleasure, and if it doesn't please us, why are pleased by its conventional twin? Significantly, the violence here takes place off screen.
Country: FR/GB/GER/IT/US/OST
Technical: col 111m
Director: Michael Haneke
Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Synopsis:
A couple and their young son travel to their lakeside country house for a spot of sailing and notice a pair of strangers with their neighbours, who themselves are acting strangely. Before long they are the helpless detainees of two impeccably dressed and mannered young sociopaths.
Review:
Haneke's remake of his own film follows the latter's template closely and is strictly an English version for the notoriously illiterate American audience most in need of its lessons. The callous behaviour of its 'villains' is unexplained; indeed the director breaks all the rules of thriller cinema, not least the possibility of individual action to redress the balance of power, and offers no hope or retribution. The result is that we are forced to remind ourselves that we are watching an entertainment, a concoction devised for our viewing pleasure, and if it doesn't please us, why are pleased by its conventional twin? Significantly, the violence here takes place off screen.