Auteur de Force: Michael Haneke's Cinema of Glaciation
by Roy GrundermannThis article, found in Cineaste Vol. XXXII No. 2, vaguely outlines Michael Haneke's skeleton of work. For starters, Wikipedia's short description of Haneke is as follows:
"...an Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style."
The article seems to repeat this for a good 8-10 pages. I'm not complaining, there are some very detailed aspects and themes from his work supporting his polemic ideas about alienation, brutalization, individuals and solipsism (unintelligibly between individuals).
He is a post-holocaust filmmaker, so his world view is to be a little skewed. That's natural. German Expressionism developed in the time between the two great wars. Great strife is a very common catalyst for great art.
Much like the expressionists which preceded him (not claiming that he is an expressionist, just that they share common traits), his works are very thematically interested in existentialism (question of existence), and alienation of individuals from the greater society. He claims "dysfunctional and self-destructive characters stress that the desirably normality of the mainstream is oppressively normative (logical circle?)": the reason his characters, sooner or later, become dysfunctional and violent.
Haneke stated himself that his film (or its purpose) acts as medium to transport self-reflexivity of modern culture and of high-art. It is to teach its viewers to question their condition of existence. To, eventually, share a world view that he seems to take interest in: that "humanity's natural lot is to suffer in the face of life's cold, hostile indifference..."
1 comment:
Eric - have you seen any of his films? Some I like quite a bit - "The Piano Teacher," "Time of the Wolf," "Cache". Others I can't stand. Definitely a provocateur, though in his best films it doesn't feel like a stunt: he just makes films that authentically unsettle, disrupt. (He also generates platforms for some great performances - am thinking mostly of Isabelle Huppet in "The Piano Teacher.") "Funny Games" though - ugh. Smug, superior bullying.
What an endorsement! But as you selected an article on him, did some googling, you may want to check him out.
What do you think of him, based on your reading? Why did you select this article? And what does Grundermann mean by "glaciation"?
All to say (or all to ask): these posts should be a platform for your report on your article, your reading, but also of you - your thoughts, your takes, your thinking. A balance between the text and the reader.
As a report/summary, this is fine-ish. But in the final round, I need to read your report on the article and I need to hear more of you. You report on the article here but you don't engage with it that much. (I read these out of sync: will check out Part I now.)
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