This early effort from the German director Michael Haneke (who works in multiple languages, including English, and identifies most strongly with Austria) collects 71 sequences about a handful of characters who come together at the climax.  The first thing we see is text explaining that on December 23, 1993, a young man shot and killed three people at a bank before committing suicide.  The film shows pieces of the lives of the people who will be involved.  The emphasis tends to be on alienation and distance, and the style of the film, where each sequence is bookended by a few moments of black screen, reinforces the theme.  Television news stories, mostly concerning war around the world but also the molestation charges against Michael Jackson, intercut the dramatic scenes.  I believe the Michael Jackson piece relates to the children portrayed in the film including a runaway from Eastern Europe and a child awaiting adoption.  Even the shooter, only 19, could be viewed as a casualty of a violence-drenched, media-driven culture, and I suppose Jackson could represent the predation of the mass media made manifest.

The film is philosophically strong and impeccably made.  Still, it leaves many questions open.  Perhaps expecting some type of answer to the violence and degradation that the characters face is asking too much, but it isn’t clear where an exit from the world of the film can be found.  Religion is mocked, technology is clearly part of the problem, and other people are truly unreachable.  I suspect, based on some research, that Haneke would argue for art and creation as the only way out, and while I might well agree, he doesn’t succeed in putting forth the argument here.  I recommend the film, but it is short of a masterpiece.  ✰ ✰ ✰.

MJM  11-05-2011