Thanks Patricia for your reply. I had completely
forgotten about those references to filmmaking in
Funny Games, which I think is very strange because the
film had a huge impact on my nervous system as well,
similar to the effect it had on you. I felt it was my
duty to watch the film, simply to find out what the
human mind may harbor but I dreaded every second of
it.
This is not on topic anymore but I do want to take the
opportunity to say something on the desire of certain
film makers to point out the responsibility of the
audience for what they are watching, as signified in
FG by the wink you mention. One could write a short
history of that process, starting, perhaps, with
Peckinpah's blood splatters in slow motion (although
perhaps they border on the sublime in the Kantian
sense) and continued in the Nouvelle Violence of the
early 90s with Pulp Fiction by the much mentioned QT
as best example.
While trying to bring my heart palpitations to rest
after watching FG, I felt that the experience of
watching it for me was really unnecessary 1) because
PF had made the same point already, only much more
subtle; and 2) more importantly, because I felt it
simply did not concern me. I think it is important to
remember that films such as FG and the NV movement are
a *response* to certain developments in film making.
But I, as a viewer in my own right, didn't start
violence in movies! I'm just there to watch a good
movie. Does that make me naïve? Only when I would be
denied the fact that I am a person in my own right
before (and after) I partake in any discourse network.
But it's my eyes that are watching the movie and it's
my heart palpitations!
Ultimately, the thing that makes the genre
uncomfortable to me is that the screenwriter/director
always has a wonderful alibi for whatever he wishes to
put on screen. The audience! The people wanted it
themselves! Yes, there is merit to that analysis, but
I much prefer directors who direct their moralism
towards themselves and show violence not glorified nor
neatly tucked away but simply because it's there, as a
metaphor for life itself. Scorsese is an excellent
example of that.
Thanks for listening,
Rutger
--- Patricia Molloy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Film-Philosophy Salon
> <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> >--- Patricia Molloy <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >> I'd also include Haneke's Funny
> >> Games come to think of
> >> it.
> >>
> >Patricia,
> >
> >Can you explain why?
>
> Sure - I've only seen the film once so details are
> hazy, but there are a
> couple of moments in which we're reminded that we're
> 'just watching a
> film', the most obvious being when the terrorized
> mom grabs the gun and
> shoots one of the intruders, the film stops, rewinds
> and the intruder
> addresses the camera/viewer and says something to
> the effect that this
> couldn't possibly happen because we're only half-way
> through the standard
> 90 minute feature. There's another moment when in an
> outdoor scene one of
> the intruders looks directly into the camera and
> winks, thus addressing
> and implicating the viewer (in the action and the
> text). I have to say
> that that film was the most terrifying (and
> paralysing) 90 minutes of my
> life (and I've seen all of Haneke's films), but
> nothing creeped me out
> more than that wink. There's no relief for the
> viewer in being made aware
> that 'ok folks this is just a film', but more like
> 'this is just a film
> but why the hell are you watching it?'. So for me,
> the title Funny Games
> was less the games the intruders 'played' with the
> family, but the games
> Haneke plays with the audience. I saw FG at the
> Toronto film fest - I
> skipped the next film, had to take a walk around the
> block, and go have a
> drink while I waited for my heart palpitations to
> subside (seriously). And
> it was my no. 1 film of my top ten that year.
> >
> >
> cheers
> Patricia
> >
> >
=====
APROPOS - Rutger H. Cornets de Groot
English-Dutch Translation Services
www.xs4all.nl/~cornets
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