109 mins | Austria 1997 | Subtitles Director: Michael Haneke Starring: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe and Arno Frisch What is our obsession with screen violence? It’s a question Michael Haneke explores with surgical scrutiny in this chilling drama.
A husband, wife and their son drive to their lake house. Soon after they arrive, two teenage boys, dressed in tennis whites, come calling. They seem innocent enough at first, but when their entreaties to enter the family house are rebuffed, they resort to violence. Through the boys, Haneke once again tears apart the fabric of middle-class life, employing shock and satire in equal measure. Haneke has no interest in further indulging a taste for screen violence – most of the action unfolds off screen. We only hear what happens. As with his previous film BENNY’S VIDEO, Haneke asks what impact screen violence must have on society. There are no easy answers, but there’s no denying the power of Haneke’s film. “Sadistic, insufferable, clever, and relentlessly compelling.” Film Scouts Complicit: A Michael Haneke Retrospective “Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at
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