Review of Funny Games (1997) by Tao 9 — 14 Nov 2013

No doubt Michael Haneke is sincere in his use of film to tell stories but I suspect he is surprised at the critical acclaim he has received as I also suspect he knows that his stories are not particularly clever and his techniques not that original.

Funny Games is yet a further example of his style in action. Find a plot with unpleasant themes, throw in some 'alternative' techniques (there's good reasons why such techniques aren't usually used), shock the audience into taking notice (possibly keep them awake) and hope the critics don't notice how empty and mediocre the production actually is.

He's fooled people before Funny Games with the phoney mystery in Hidden and fooled people since with the overplayed understatement of Amour. The central themes to Haneke's work are potentially interesting but the ways in which they are dealt with are needlessly complex to the point where they don't provide insights or develop deeper understanding.

Well composed shots with interesting mise-en-scène are not enough to make a film memorable and long takes of little happening end up as distracting rather than revealing. Film critics looking for 'art cinema' upon which to heap praise are fooled into thinking they're dealing with something profound when in truth it's third rate cinema.