Michael Haneke’s Necessary and Shocking Masterpieces Are Now Streaming in New Collection
Everyone has those formative movie moments. Maybe it’s a movie that filled you with awe. Maybe the movie filled you with dread. Or, perhaps, the movie challenged you in a way you weren’t used to. Such was the case with me and filmmaker Michael Haneke, particularly Caché. The synopsis broadly suggests a family terrorized by anonymous surveillance tapes that keep showing up at their door. I loved Lost Highway growing up, so Caché was a no-brainer. But I was a kid, largely (entirely) unfamiliar with French cinema, or Haneke as an artist. I didn’t get it.
Years later, as the genre really took hold of me, I jumped back to Funny Games. That I got. A true masterpiece, and yeah, that includes the English-language remake he helmed in 2007. I was also a baby cinephile, so I had to see Haneke’s Amour amid all the Oscar talk. Loved it. Haneke was operating on a wavelength I didn’t get at first, so I went back to Caché. That time? The film was a 10/10. It took a while, but we got there. Michael Haneke is a modern auteur, and now, you can stream some of his very best as part of a curated collection on The Criterion Channel.
Per The Criterion Channel: Chilling, unblinking confrontations with the void of modern existence, the films of Michael Haneke dare viewers to reckon with the links between media, violence, capitalism, and inequality in an increasingly sterile, alienated world. With his first three theatrical features—The Seventh Continent, Benny’s Video, and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Change—Haneke offered a disturbing vision of an Austrian society so emotionally numb it could only be roused by the shock of sudden violence. His harrowing dissections of contemporary malaise reached new heights of controversy and acclaim with much-debated international sensations like the dread-inducing home-invasion thriller Funny Games and the startling psycho-erotic drama The Piano Teacher, which firmly established him as one of contemporary cinema’s most daring and provocative artists.
While you will need a subscription to access the library in full, it’s well worth the investment. Haneke might appear nihilistic at first glance, but his filmography operates with a kind of raw, penetrating humanity that’s uncomfortable, but always profoundly revealing. This is cinema and storytelling in its purest form, and unpacking his films is never less than satisfying. What’s Funny Games all about, really? Well, that’s up to you to decide.
The collection features the aforementioned Funny Games, The Seventh Continent, Code Unknown, and several other films. While it’s not a complete collection, it’s close to one, and it’s a fantastic opportunity for Haneke fans and newcomers alike. And, if you feel like splurging, our own Mary Beth McAndrews has a video essay titled “Remediation and Found Footage of Benny’s Video and Cache” featured in Umbrella Entertainment’s beefy Michael Haneke Blu-ray collection.
What do you think? Any plans to check the collection out? I recommend it as much as I can possibly recommend something. If you do choose to check it out, let me know your thoughts over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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