Movie Melting Pot…’Funny Games’ (Austria, 1997)

“We’re not up to feature film length yet.” – Paul (Arno Frisch) in ‘Funny Games’

Michael Haneke’s 1997 film ‘Funny Games’ is a thriller that covers psychological and visceral imagery alike.   It is a film that polarizes audiences, critics, and just about anyone who takes the time to sit through it.   On metacritic.com, the film has a 72 out of 100 score.   On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s at 61%.   It is labeled by critics as everything from a “triumph” to a “metaphysical experiment in sadism” to a “firestarter for post-screening arguments.”   Love it or hate it, ‘Funny Games’ is an interesting film that probably raises more questions than it answers, but those questions are much deeper than generally found in films of this nature.

The plot revolves around a family of three, mother, father, and 12-year-old son.   They are visiting their summer home on a lake for some rest and relaxation.   They have not arrived long before two young gentlemen show up at their door.   Things quickly get out of hand, as the family is taken hostage by the two young men in order to play a game.   The game?   The two young men bet that the family will be dead within 24 hours.   What follows is a cat and mouse thriller that often blurs the line between what is fiction and what is reality.

That last little bit is what makes ‘Funny Games’ so different from your typical “torture horror” film.   Several times, Paul, the “leader” of the two young men, will glance out towards us, the audience.   A few times, he addresses us directly.   There are many elements, themes, and situations that occur in ‘Funny Games’ that, on the surface, don’t make any sense.   When the story is complete, and you stand back and look at the point Haneke is trying to make, it all falls into place.

Without giving away too much detail, Haneke is addressing the believe-to-be-obvious differences between the real world and the fictional world.   Many times we are told that what is unfolding on screen is something that could happen in real life to real people.   However, typical movie wisdom tells us, the audience, that everything is going to be okay, that by the time the credits roll, all will have been set right.   Haneke’s film slaps that convention out of our hands.

The film played at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and was nominated for the Palm D’or.   It was also nominated for Director of the Year and Foreign Film of the Year at 1999 London Critics Circle Film Awards.   It was nominated for Best Film at the ’97 Chicago International Film Festival.   Haneke won the award for Best Director at that festival as well.

In 2007, Haneke remade ‘Funny Games’, this time for American audiences.   The film is a shot-for-shot remake of his original and starred Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, and Michael Pitt.   Oddly enough, the remake is at 50% at Rotten Tomatoes, but that is probably because more critics saw the remake than the original.   The remake was released in the US on March 14, 2008, but, with only a limited run (it was never on more than 288 screens), it made just under $1.3 million.   It made another $5.4 million in foreign box office.

‘Funny Games’, the original nor the remake, is not a film for all audiences.   It is brutal and, at times, very hard to watch.   There is very little actual violence on screen.   Much of what we see is the aftermath of some horrific event.   At the same time, however, it is an incredibly intelligent film that should not be missed by any connoisseur of film, foreign or otherwise.