Amour (by Michael Haneke)

I said this before but anyone talking about Haneke without having seen "Code Unknown" should see that un-cruel and perfect and beautiful movie and re-evaluate

"Code Unknown" was my first MH movie. Went after reading a one-paragraph review in the Chicago Reader, knowing nothing else. Loved it.

The White Ribbon was great: most good art film is chic!

Like all I've seen apart from maybe his Kafka adaptation - but even then I'd watch it again for Ulrich Mühe's performance.

Reading this thread I realise that 71 Fragments of Chronology of a Chance is perhaps my favourite. Done in Code Unknown-type tableaux form (there is never enough cinema like this btw) but yes lots of assholism.

Come in for the chic but stay for the asshole, basically...

I like the idea of Funny Games

i bet you do!

Code Unknown is incredibly powerful and fresh.

It's probably in my all time top ten

wd love to know if DJP sat through both versions of Funny Games, or show him the first if he only saw the Watts one

oh l'ammoooooooooooooour
broke my heart now I'm achin for you

Pretty sure this is not an adaptation of the Erasure song, though given its gut-wrenching assault it seems like the sort of tune Haneke would put on the soundtrack to make you feel terrible for enjoying it.

Loved Code Unknown, pretty much everything else I've seen by Haneke makes me say fuck this guy. And then he does something like remake Funny Games in the most "don't you see?" way possible, and it makes me say fuck this guy even more.

Agree with the 3 morbs cited as the best reasons not to ever dismiss him out of hand. Plus this one too now, though I'm not sure it's up to the same level as the others.

I saw the original

The original was the worst Haneke movie I've ever seen except for Benny's Video.

Sort of wonder if the problem wasn't Arno Frisch.

Of course, he's supposed to be repugnant in both movies.

do you guys like Bruno Dumont

Liked L'Humanite when it was hot, loathed Twentynine Palms with a red hot fury.

LOVE Dumont, tho i don't think he's ever really topped his debut (HORS SATAN gets released in the UK early 2012, lotta hype abt it being his best - tho' the one before, HADEWIJCH, is also excellent, but didn't reach cinemas here)

TWENTYNINE PALMS is the one I haven't seen - what was the problem w/ it, Eric?

lol it's just shitty

a few nice shots of the desert but one of the worst of those 'overseas auteurs in america' curiosities

i am mindful of seeing some other dumont tho....

Yeah, it may have caught me in an unreceptive moment, but it felt like an idiot Zabriskie riff.

FLANDRES also moves between France and an unidentified foreign country, and is not entirely successful, even within the terms of his aesthetic (which is course is p easy to parody - explicit sex, bleakness, long takes, religiosity.) but yeah, give LA VIE DE JESUS a go, maybe (there's a typically immaculate Masters of Cinema Region 2 DVD.)

In interview Dumont comes across as a real big'ead, which i think contributes to ppl's antipathy towards him, and his constant denials abt a Bresson influence are not entirely plausible - but still, I kinda like my European auteurs haughty and up themselves, that's what they're there for

That is sorta OTM. But I reserve my right to be as haughty and up myself about which of their movies I call the best of the year and which of their movies I call the worst of all time.

yeah i was going to watch LVDJ

what about l'humanité?

L'HUMANITE is prob his least 'realistic' in terms of ppl's motivations and reactions, even though it's nominally a murder mystery. the central character is played by a non-professional actor and funnily enough his peformance brought to mind Bruno S in STROSEK - another one of those 'overseas auteurs in america' curiosities (albeit a p successful one, imho)

'Overseas auteurs in america curiosities' would be a good idea for a poll except The Passanger would win quite easily I think.

Really looking forward to new Dumont in the new year.

yeah not a bad idea (although the passenger isn't very american, disregarding the finances)

incidentally i started playing the jack nicholson commentary on the dvd and these days he has possibly the croakiest most langorous voice i have ever heard

I'll watch any movie with beautiful shots of people waking around the desert

Life of Jesus is good

Is it Life of Jesus or L'humanité that begins with the close-up of the dead, raped girl's crotch and ends with the guy levitating? Because that movie was some bullshit.

L'humanité. That film was interesting imo.

I've found all of his films interesting although i haven't seen 29 palms. Hadewijch got a v limited release here Ward. I saw it at the GFT.

And 29 Palms was the couple driving across America, having sex and roaring like cavemen? Fuck that one, too.

I saw Hadewijch at the ICA. Older ones aside he and maybe Assayas are the only French filmmakers worth bothering with these days.

ohh nice jed and xyzzzz. haven't seen any of his films at the cinema, am hoping that the new one plays at the GFT. one of the things abt Dumont that i find interesting - perfect word! - is the way that he isn't afraid to cram the 'here and now' - the political-historical - into these abstract-spiritual art exercises. HADEWIJCH seemed partic successful in that regard.

there's an interview w/ dumont in the new sight and sound; his next film is abt Camille Claudel, w/ juliette binoche, which brings us nicely back to CODE UNKNOWN (that one has always seemed to me like Haneke's semi-tribute to Kiarostami, to me)

RE; THE PASSENGER commentary track - think i've heard/seen it claimed that nicholson had a bad cold or something that day - he cld be stoned, it's hard to tell 'cos we (me) almost never hear nicholson speaking out of character. if you're interested in more 'ravaged voice commentary track' curiosities, check out clive barker on the first hellraiser dvd.

the peploe commentary on THE PASSENGER disc is also worth listening to - interesting stuff abt peter wollen, someone v much of interest to me

to me

lol jack may not be the only one operating under the influence

Last time I was in the BFI shop I was looking at Wollen's bk on Snging in the Rain in that brand new cover to celebrate BFI classics anniversary - have you read it?

no i haven't - that's one of those where, i'm more interested in the writer than the film, i guess. also - they're expensive, i'm cheap, and i've never seen it second-hand.

have never seen any of the films he made w/ laura mulvey, either - have you?

yeah I've never seen it 2nd hand whenever I look, and my library only has a few of these.

There was one of their films on UBU, made a note to see it. Had another look but that's gone now.

the new cover on TAXI DRIVER by amy taubin is hideous, btw, though the interior stills look gorgeous (one i did manage to borrow from the library)

Have either of you been inducted into The Index of ILX Film Snobs yet?

Not sure whether I should be offended that I'm thought of as a film snob or that someone has only noticed it now.

That I'm listed 2nd is an insult to real snobs everywhere.

this is turning into Directors I'd Like to Waterboard

stay classy.

I'd put Bigelow on the short list of Directors I'd Like to Waterbed.

(Sorry, too easy)

for the first third i thought:"if it was'nt a Haneke film, no one would give a fuck"
but after that i realized it's one of his best films, and actually deals with his same subjects as always (only of course more subtle) but also suggests a moral solution to the "terror controls life" Haneke issues, that was missing in most of his films.

lol Josh

http://www.ica.org.uk/36047/Film/Hors-Satan.html

New Dumont in early Jan for - fans of waterboarding welcome.

An exploitation movie swathed in Schubert: Funny Endgames.

So vile.

I guess in a certain context, yeah, it could be construed as a comedy. Didn't see it that way at first, but now, yeah, wry and quirky.

still can't understand the laziness about starting a new thread for a new film by a worthless auteur

you think they deserve a new thread per film but are worthless?

No need to start a thread for every single new film. You've seen the stories about bitcoin, every new transaction kills trees.

Happy End specifically references Amour at one point, so it makes sense to revive this thread.

it's quite free and loosely structured

Yes, I really liked this aspect; Haneke brilliant as ever at suggesting other stories behind the stories, things unsaid, secrets kept from the audience and perhaps even from the auteur.

Yeah mentioned the continuities above but since Morbs hates Amour...I think where I disagreed with the S&S rev is that Amour is probably my favorite of his films from the last decade, and it's a pretty unique depiction of a certain phase in a relationship. Something I will return to again whenever I get to a re-watch.

i wasn't quite sure what happened with Pierrot at the dinner - does his mother break his finger or what? i was also confused by Pierrot's karaoke performance - what happens at the end of that?

This film was very funny. I think the sight of isabelle huppert in anything now automatically makes me ready to laugh. Her main thing seems to be often that she is too busy to be in whatever film she is supposed to be acting in. Often it feels like she is just trying to finish the conversation the other actor is trying to have with her so she can get her coat and leave. I saw her acting in a terrible play once and she was not nearly so funny as she is in this. She's gotten much better as well. I rewatched La Ceremonie not too long ago and keeps jumping about the place making funny faces.

There's shot near the beginning where IH is driving along the security fences in Calais on the mobile phone, along a very modern motorway that made me think of this line from an interview with Deleuze where he says "Control is not discipline. You do not confine people with a highway. But by making highways, you multiply the means of control. I am not saying this is the only aim of highways, but people can travel infinitely and ‘freely’ without being confined while being perfectly controlled. That is our future." I kept thinking about this all the way through the film, the distinction between these different regimes of power, discibline for refugees control for the vapid bourgeoisie. The security cameras which are watching the site (during the collapse) and the CCTV along the fences become are mirrored by the highways, mobile phones, email and social media. I think this was a major theme of the film, the industriousness of the middle classes in making their own prisons. Like John Lewis.

I could have done without the karaoke scene. That was pretty tiresome.

I kept thinking of Muriel by Alain Resnais which has many similarities but is more interesting and much funnier.

This is probably the best "new release" I saw this year.

i wasn't quite sure what happened with Pierrot at the dinner - does his mother break his finger or what? i was also confused by Pierrot's karaoke performance - what happens at the end of that?

Unexpected!

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/31/michael-haneke-kelvins-book-10-part-english-language-tv-series

noted

Recommend me some Michael Haneke

Sorry, didn't see that one. Could be his World on a Wire!

psyche

Hmm. This Guardian Film article ranks Amour as Haneke's best movie.

Michael Haneke films – ranked!

I've only seen four of his films, and not the best-known ones; but 71 Fragments... is very good and even has some propulsion to it.

You knew that Haneke's career wasn't going to take off in the US when he refused the obvious subtitle for his remake of Funny Games: Sadistic Boogaloo.

I think the sight of isabelle huppert in anything now automatically makes me ready to laugh. Her main thing seems to be often that she is too busy to be in whatever film she is supposed to be acting in.