Funny Games
(1997)
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A powerfully graphic film (even though no violence is ever shown on the screen itself) about an Austrian family who goes on a country vacation and become the victims of two cold-blooded psychopaths who are out to torture them with their "funny games." Haneke's point, that fictional violence is as real as the real world's, is presented chillingly in this extremely well-acted, yet potentially offensive effort. Weak of stomach, beware. |
This controversial, cautionary tale from Austrian director Michael Haneke is lauded in some circles for being an uncompromising study of on-screen violence and, in others, as the worst type of exploitation that panders to the same base instincts it purports to lay bare. It follows two young men who inveigle their way into the holiday home of a middle-class family and subject them to degrading torture and sickening humiliation. Haneke's deconstruction of matter-of-fact terror is radical and thought-provoking, but also too clever by half. Setting out to appal the senses with a catalogue of true horror, Haneke succeeds in his aim with a powerful “shockumentary“ that's hard to watch — deliberately. It's definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Halliwell's Film Guide
A disturbing film, intended as a polemic against film-makers and audiences who enjoy gratuitous violence; the violence here is presented in a way to make it seem painful rather than thrilling.