DVD review: Funny GamesFunny Games2007, 18, Halcyon hal·cy·on n. 1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon. 2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea £18.99 There's a peculiar arrogance implicit in Austrian maestro Michael Haneke's decision to embark upon a virtual shot-for-shot English language of remake his 1997 shocker shock·er n. One that startles, shocks, or horrifies, as a sensational story or novel. Noun 1. shocker - a shockingly bad person bad person - a person who does harm to others 2. Funny Games. In the original German-language film, two post-Clockwork Orange psychopaths, clad in tennis whites and creepy-clean gloves, inveigle in·vei·gle tr.v. in·vei·gled, in·vei·gling, in·vei·gles 1. To win over by coaxing, flattery, or artful talk. See Synonyms at lure. 2. their way into a middle-class family's holiday home and then proceed to torture and kill them for the 'entertainment' of the incriminated audience. Haneke's thesis was simple - popular cinema commodifies violence and the ticket-buying public is picking up the tab. Yet when his skilfully sadistic sa·dism n. 1. The deriving of sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others. 2. The deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty. , high-handedly hectoring movie failed to win mainstream English speaking support, Haneke unblushingly un·blush·ing adj. 1. Lacking or exhibiting a lack of shame or embarrassment. See Synonyms at shameless. 2. Not blushing. un·blush concluded that it must be the language (rather than the film) that was at fault. Hence, Funny Games U.S., a devout rendering of the original text, stoically sto·ic n. 1. One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain. 2. Stoic A member of an originally Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno about 308 translated into English, in order to allow 'an American audience to watch the movie' and, in the process, receive a stern telling off about 'American cinema, its violence, its naivete'. Stylistically, it's hard to fault the mephitic air of growing unease that the director conjures as the unwatchable (and, in crucial sequences, unseen) torture unfolds. Michael Pitt struggles somewhat to fill Arno Frisch's malicious shoes, but Naomi Watts suffers like a trouper as the abused mother who becomes the focus of the intruder's attacks. Like Haneke's earlier work, Benny's Video, the finger of blame is pointed squarely at the viewer, although the steely sanctimony sanc·ti·mo·ny n. Feigned piety or righteousness; hypocritical devoutness or high-mindedness. [Obsolete French sanctimonie, from Latin s of Funny Games (both versions) is notably absent from his previous foray into this territory. Here, the director exhibits cold, calculated cruelty as he tortures and torments his viewers with clinical precision. The result is efficiently ghastly - unsurprising, then, that cinema audiences stayed away in droves. 
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion