The Michael Haneke Collection

One of the most original and provocative filmmakers working in cinema today, Michael Haneke has always been prepared to exploit the technical capabilities of the medium with a rigorous formalism. Stripping his narrative down and pushing the form to its limits, Haneke clearly aims to teach us something about ourselves and how we communicate, partly as citizens in a modern multicultural society, partly as consumers, but almost inevitably and unfortunately self-referentially, his films speak to us mostly as cinema goers, saying more about cinema as a tool for communication. The constraints of an overly-formal, clinical, distanced and intellectualised approach both towards the medium as a technical form and towards the subject matter itself, can often make Haneke’s films tough going, touching on a number of social and political issues obliquely and with apparent neutrality, ostensibly leaving it up to the viewer to decide and formulate their own personal response to the themes presented. In reality the director has very specific points to make through the medium of cinema.

Consequently, Haneke’s films can draw varied responses from viewers and critics that depend very much on how receptive one is to what he is presenting and how committed one is to drawing meaning from it. Some see his films as overly preachy, didactic, full of empty rhetoric and manipulative tautology, mere trickery with more technique than substance pandering to a middle-class arthouse cinema audience, others find their openness and neutrality as being necessary to engage the viewer and make them think for themselves, rather than spoon-feeding them, raising issues and topics that continually place demands on the viewer and challenge their outlook, leaving the films open to constant re-evaluation and personal interpretation and identification. Haneke’s films are actually all of the above, and it is the fact that they are so controversial and open to interpretation, creating such a strong personal reaction with individual viewers, that makes them such fascinating viewing.

These traits were already clearly evident in Michael Haneke’s earliest films. Born in Munich, Germany, it was however in Vienna, Austria that Haneke was raised and educated, going on to work as a director for theatre and television. His first three feature films made in Austria - The Seventh Continent (1989), Benny’s Video (1992) and 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance (1994) all demonstrate all the themes, techniques and shock values that are now very familiar in the director’s style, each of the films revealing the cracks in modern society, particularly in the middle-classes, that push vulnerable individuals to commit inexplicable acts of violence. Haneke’s fourth feature film made in Austria, Funny Games (1997), extended the frame further, abandoning the strict realism and naturalism of his earlier films to exploit the techniques of filmmaking in a way that illustrated and implicated the viewer’s response into the experience of what they were watching, yet in the process losing none of the formal asceticism or the harsh nature of the grim events depicted.

Haneke’s subsequent films have been all made in France using French actors and it is these four most recent films that are that are collected in The Michael Haneke Collection released by Artificial Eye. In many ways, two of the films - Code Unknown (2000) and Hidden (Caché) (2005) - explore similar situations to those in his Austrian films – the complacent middle-class Western European family unit being faced to confront the state that the world finds itself in today that they have been complicit in creating either directly or through their own wilful ignorance. I personally find these the less interesting films in Haneke’s French period, being deliberately manipulative and preachy, rather patronisingly shaking his head at the situation without having anything to add to the subject of living in a multicultural society. Furthermore, the films rely heavily on a familiar little bag of tricks, techniques, situations and shock tactics that Haneke has already explored exhaustively in his Austrian films – tactics that are barely adequate to convey the levels of complexity they confront. Much more interesting are the films The Piano Teacher (2001) and Time Of The Wolf (2003), both of which see Haneke taking these themes in a new direction and being forced to find a new means of expressing his considerable directing and writing talent – the former forcing him to adhere to a relatively traditional narrative format in an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s admittedly far from conventional novel; the latter by taking a look at a post-apocalyptic situation, forcing the director to use allegory to depict his favourite themes regarding the failings of a self-destructing society.

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Code Unknown (2000)

Using many of the themes and techniques of his Austrian films, Haneke’s first French feature film is virtually a remake of his 1994 film 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance, with a subtle shift of emphasis that examines the conditions of the much more multicultural French society and the problems inherent in the subsequent failure of communication that exists on many different levels between the various cultures and classes. Formally austere, using long unedited takes with little narrative drive, Code Unknown can be difficult and abstract, but is nonetheless an extremely powerful film about a serious, relevant and modern subject.

Click here to read here to the full review of - Code Unknown.

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The Piano Teacher (2001)

The Piano Teacher is quite unlike any of Michael Haneke’s other films in that, apart from an Austrian television adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Castle, it is an adaptation of another person’s novel and not written by the director himself. The subject matter of the power of repressed violent impulses finally given vent to is nonetheless one that Haneke is fully in tune with. The protagonist, Erika Kohut, is an apparently straight-laced music teacher at the Vienna Conservatory, who’s violent and self-harming impulses come out in a masochistic sexual relationship she embarks on with a young pupil. With a great deal of both subliminal and direct violence and an astonishing performance by Isabelle Huppert - one of the best in modern cinema – Haneke is forced to adapt his style considerably towards the narrative form and the result is nothing less than astonishing.

Click here to read here to the full review of - The Piano Teacher.

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Time Of The Wolf (2003)

Time Of The Wolf is perhaps Michael Haneke’s most untypical film – an almost science fiction situation where society has been plunged into turmoil after some unspecified global disaster – yet it is perhaps also his most open and fascinating film that into which can be read any number of interpretations. Haneke fully exploits the situation to examine his favourite themes, using the post-apocalyptic circumstances to create a social model as an experimental testing ground. Stripped down of all of its rules and conventions, the true impulses that lie beneath human behaviour are thus laid bare and the results aren’t pretty. Unlike any of the director’s other films however, which could all almost certainly be described as cold, bleak, intellectualised and pessimistic, here in Time Of The Wolf there are shades of both darkness and light that allow the viewer to form a more favourable interpretation on the essence of human nature.

Click here to read here to the full review of - Time Of The Wolf.

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Hidden (2005)

Haneke’s most recent film is perhaps his most ambitious yet, combining a rigorous technique with controversial social critique and politically sensitive material. There is little that is new in Haneke’s technique or his message – he reaches into his familiar bag of tricks with shock flashes of unexpected violence, manipulated video images to disorient the viewer, twisting their perception of reality to show how miscommunication can exist between classes and cultures – this time expanding the theme of cultural confrontation from small scale to global significance drawing on imagery from the Algeria, Iraq and 9/11. He even ties it all up into a mystery thriller. Or does he? Haneke’s skill and brilliance as a filmmaker is never more apparent than it is here in Caché, but beyond the marvellous technique, quite what message he expects the viewer to draw from it all, if anything, is rather tenuous and subjective.

Click here to read here to the full review of - Hidden (Caché).

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DVD
The Michael Haneke Collection boxset collecting these four films is released in the UK by Artificial Eye. The films are each presented on a dual-layer disc in PAL format and encoded for Region 2. The content and the quality of the discs is identical to previously released DVD editions, but they are repackaged here with new covers in slimline cases and held within a slipcase.

Video
The video transfers on all of the films are exceptionally good, all of them presented anamorphically in the original aspect ratios. Haneke’s films are shot quite naturalistically, often making use of low-lit conditions – particularly in Time Of The Wolf, which often takes place in almost complete darkness. Despite this the transfers hold up exceptionally well, showing little in the way of marks, scratches or print damage, and few signs of artefacting. Hidden (Caché) in particular - an apparently digital transfer taken directly from the DV-shot film – is simply beyond reproach. Further details on individual transfers can be found within the full reviews of each film, linked above.

Audio
The soundtracks on Haneke’s films are often vitally important in conveying the tone of the film, yet they are recorded and presented with austerity, often just centrally on the front speaker. Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes are included for each of the films except Code Unknown, which only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. The 5.1 mix on each of the other films is strong and would seem to be truest to the director’s original intentions.

Subtitles
Code Unknown has fixed subtitles, which are rather large and unsightly, but the remainder of the films have optional English subtitles in a clear white font.

Extras
Each of the four films comes with a fine set of extra features that fully explore the making of the film through behind-the-scenes features and in probing interviews with the director. Haneke rarely gives away anything of his intentions for the films, but his views are always interesting. It’s hard to imagine any extra features that would more completely supplement the films themselves. Full details of the extra features contained on each disc can be found on the individual reviews of each of the films, linked above.

Overall
The apparent neutrality of Michael Haneke’s films and their flirtations with controversial imagery are designed to provoke a strong reaction, and they always achieve that aim. The films in this collection can variously amaze, frustrate, anger and fill the viewer with both disgust and admiration, often within the same film. It’s all part of a disorientation process that Haneke is playing on the viewer, never putting across a straightforward message, but expecting the viewer to pull together their own view from a variety of images and the responses they provoke. For this reason the viewer should always challenge what Haneke is presenting and question one’s own reaction towards it and, like them or not, Haneke’s films create a strong impression and force the viewer to think for themselves, which is much more than we are accustomed to seeing in modern cinema. For that reason, if for no other, Haneke is an important director whose work will always merit attention. And when he is not pushing buttons in a hectoring, didactic tone and extends the scope of his cinema beyond his own limitations – as in The Piano Teacher and Time Of The Wolf he can be astonishingly good. Artificial Eye’s collection of four of Michael Haneke’s most relevant, controversial and recent films is a good way to explore one of the most interesting and brilliant directors working in cinema today.