Review of 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1995) by Sébastien V — 13 Apr 2008
Last in Haneke's thematically linked trilogy, of the emptiness of modern life. Sounds happy, right?! This could be described as Gus Van Sant's Elephant in the style of Robert Altman. A series of short, static scenes of a range of 5 or 6 seemingly unconnected characters, interspersed with news footage of the time (mostly the wars in Yugoslavia and Somalia) come together in a seemingly random shooting by a young student, himself one of the characters we've been following.
There are a few slight suspense hooks early in the movie, but otherwise the short, deliberately dull scenes of everyday life are not exactly interesting, although the structure itself gives it a kind of hypnotic watchability.
The drama increases towards the end, and the shooting itself is captured in a cold, emotionless manner. As usual Haneke doesn't explore motive or psychology, his camera is used purely for observation.
The shooting suddenly becomes one of the TV news stories itself, posing more unanswered questions about the desensitizing nature of the modern media. Certainly an interesting experiment, but not completely succesful in my opinion.
This review of 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1995) was written by Sébastien V on 13 Apr 2008.
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance has generally received positive reviews.
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