Written and Directed by German born Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher, Cache), Funny Games combines thriller conventions “with a number of Brechtian devices that catch audiences in a voyeuristic trance” (Stephen Holden, The New York Times). A succession of “sadistic, insufferable, clever and relentlessly compelling” (David Sterritt, Film Scouts) games between victims and perpetrators – and between auteur and spectator – Funny Games opens with an aerial shot of an SUV maneuvering through an idyllic landscape. Inside the vehicle, Anna (Susanne Lothar, The Piano Teacher) Georg (Ulrich Muhe, Benny’s Video) and their son Georgie play a guessing game en route to their lakeside home. But a soporific rural escape rapidly turns into a home invasion nightmare as Paul (Arno Frisch, Benny’s Video) and Peter (Frank Giering) break into their house, claiming to be neighbors’ relatives. Young and articulate, the serial killers duo of Peter and Paul inexplicably imprison this upper class Austrian family, irrationally switching from physical assaults to moments of emotional harassment and vicious psychological tortures. “This beautifully acted and paced German variant of Cape Fear”(Holden, The New York Times) is one of Michael Haneke’s most acclaimed portrayals of unspeakable, and ever unjustifiable, acts of violence
Product Features
- FUNNY GAMES (DVD MOVIE)
Clever, effective and disturbing It is a good idea to know something about this film before watching it.
The cure for being too enamored of movie violence! I never realized the extent to which big-budget American action films condition audiences into savoring and craving “justifiable” acts of violence until I saw this fascinating and deeply disturbing Austrian movie from noted German director Michael Haneke. I couldn’t sleep after seeing it, but after about a week had passed, I was very glad that I’d seen it. I’m now “immune” from being manipulated into enjoying onscreen violence, because the movie made me keenly aware of when I AM being manipulated … and of the “commandments” that movies featuring cathartically satisfying acts of vengeance are built upon and dare not violate.