Funny Games is the easy one: it doesn't offer much. A light deconstruction and being provoking may be entertaining, but those qualities alone do not make a great or even good film. As for Benny's, I found it to be far less engaging than its sibling film, a tired retread. Also the point of the film, Funny Games too to a degree, makes Haneke come off as a old man shouting at the kids for their 'rap music and hips hops'.RobertB wrote: Why do you find them his worst films?
Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
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knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:49 pm
Re: Cache (Haneke, 2005) SPOILERS!
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Henrik Summanen
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 1:25 pm
Re: Cache (Haneke, 2005) SPOILERS!
Hi,
Sorry to bump this old thread, but I am tracking the Caché story back to the old poem "Pierrot Lunaire" by Giraud. I have searched the web for just any hint or analysis that takes this point of view, but cannot find any. What is your opinion?
If seen through the Pierrot Lunaire-glasses, most of the mysteries are moreless easily solved.
Sorry to bump this old thread, but I am tracking the Caché story back to the old poem "Pierrot Lunaire" by Giraud. I have searched the web for just any hint or analysis that takes this point of view, but cannot find any. What is your opinion?
If seen through the Pierrot Lunaire-glasses, most of the mysteries are moreless easily solved.
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Henrik Summanen
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 1:25 pm
Re: Cache (Haneke, 2005) SPOILERS!
So, this is what I mean when I say that Haneke has made an adoption of ”Pierrot Lunaire”, in the symbolist interpretation of the poem by Giraud. I give a brief note about the synopsis, for those interested in the deeper meanings I refer to the Wikipedia site for Pierrot Lunaire (book).
In the common symbolist interpretation of the Pierrot Lunaire poem, we find Pierrot in a divided world: the public realm, inhabited by the friends of Pierrot from Commedia dell´Arte, a world that is marked by deformity, degeneracy, avarice and lust. In the public realm, the sun presides. And then we have the private realm, dominated by the moon, where Pierrot feels like home. Pierrot is of this dreaming, moonlit world, today not what it used to be. Pierrot is lost in nostalgia and resides in a “sad mental desert”. Usually this is interpreted as the “artist” of the late 19th century who is living his dreams, and dislikes the false deformed public world.
In the poem, Pierrot gets more and more mad, in action leading to suicide attempt, actually by the moon itself coming down as a white saber to decapitate him. But Pierrot is saved when he perceives that the art of his world is eternal, and that the art has replaced the function of religion. The sacrifice of the artist, is the new Lamb of God.
So, in deconstructing this, we find:
1. The public realm where the Sun resides, in Caché represented by George (conveniently the moderator of a tv show) and his wife (a publisher) – both in the field of mass media. Their world is what everybody can see. Actually they are editing what people can see – as George says in a sequence: “this is too theoretical, remove this” when editing a show – easily interpreted as a part of the deformed world of the Sun.
2. The private realm, dominated by the Moon, in Caché represented by everyone outside of the public mass media, by everyone whose story will not be told in public – that is Pierrot (sic – just the name!), Majid and his son. Pierrot even reads the book Chien de la Lune (Moondog). Note that George only meets his childhood in his dreams. He is not willing to confront what happened then in the public realm.
3. The swimming of Pierrot. Water is traditionally a symbol for the moon.
4. Majids suicide by cutting his throat: is corresponding to the “decapitation” part of Pierrot Lunaire, a sacrifice.
5. The relation between Anne and Pierre – revealed by Pierrot. This is a representation of the corruptness and falseness of the public realm, but easily seen in the moonlit world where Pierrot resides. (This can also be interpreted as a Columbine (Anne)/Harlequin (Pierre) drama – where Pierrot always loose Columbine to Harlequin)
6. Who is sending the films? Well, this is the tricky part. I think the key is in that they are completely unedited – as opposed to Georges shows, and Anne´s books. This is the private moonlit world´s revenge on the public, and therefore it is both Pierrot, Majid and his son who are sending the films. THIS is the reason for them to meet in the end of the film. It is a very sophisticated symbolic twist, given by a genius like Haneke.
I would say that this film is not a criminal drama, it is a symbolic staging of power structures in our present society, expressed through the media of moving image. What Haneke is doing is moving from the editing side – the Sunlit world – to give a perspective from the Other side, from the side of the unheard stories. That is why the killing of the Algerian demonstrators is brought up, a story not so well covered in the French media of today.
7. So what is Hidden? From a Pierrot Lunaire perspective, I would like to say that the title refers to the “hiddenness” of the by the public mass media editors untold stories. Who do we see, and who do we not see in media today, is Haneke´s question.
In poetry and music the story of Pierrot Lunaire is well known. Mostly as an icon of the modernist Auteur, or Artist, and brought forward by composer Arnold Schönberg, whose musical interpretation of the (German translation of the) poem is one of the most known expressions of the work. Haneke joins the group with this post-modern interpretation where control over mass media controls both the world and the premises for prosperity and success in life.
In the common symbolist interpretation of the Pierrot Lunaire poem, we find Pierrot in a divided world: the public realm, inhabited by the friends of Pierrot from Commedia dell´Arte, a world that is marked by deformity, degeneracy, avarice and lust. In the public realm, the sun presides. And then we have the private realm, dominated by the moon, where Pierrot feels like home. Pierrot is of this dreaming, moonlit world, today not what it used to be. Pierrot is lost in nostalgia and resides in a “sad mental desert”. Usually this is interpreted as the “artist” of the late 19th century who is living his dreams, and dislikes the false deformed public world.
In the poem, Pierrot gets more and more mad, in action leading to suicide attempt, actually by the moon itself coming down as a white saber to decapitate him. But Pierrot is saved when he perceives that the art of his world is eternal, and that the art has replaced the function of religion. The sacrifice of the artist, is the new Lamb of God.
So, in deconstructing this, we find:
1. The public realm where the Sun resides, in Caché represented by George (conveniently the moderator of a tv show) and his wife (a publisher) – both in the field of mass media. Their world is what everybody can see. Actually they are editing what people can see – as George says in a sequence: “this is too theoretical, remove this” when editing a show – easily interpreted as a part of the deformed world of the Sun.
2. The private realm, dominated by the Moon, in Caché represented by everyone outside of the public mass media, by everyone whose story will not be told in public – that is Pierrot (sic – just the name!), Majid and his son. Pierrot even reads the book Chien de la Lune (Moondog). Note that George only meets his childhood in his dreams. He is not willing to confront what happened then in the public realm.
3. The swimming of Pierrot. Water is traditionally a symbol for the moon.
4. Majids suicide by cutting his throat: is corresponding to the “decapitation” part of Pierrot Lunaire, a sacrifice.
5. The relation between Anne and Pierre – revealed by Pierrot. This is a representation of the corruptness and falseness of the public realm, but easily seen in the moonlit world where Pierrot resides. (This can also be interpreted as a Columbine (Anne)/Harlequin (Pierre) drama – where Pierrot always loose Columbine to Harlequin)
6. Who is sending the films? Well, this is the tricky part. I think the key is in that they are completely unedited – as opposed to Georges shows, and Anne´s books. This is the private moonlit world´s revenge on the public, and therefore it is both Pierrot, Majid and his son who are sending the films. THIS is the reason for them to meet in the end of the film. It is a very sophisticated symbolic twist, given by a genius like Haneke.
I would say that this film is not a criminal drama, it is a symbolic staging of power structures in our present society, expressed through the media of moving image. What Haneke is doing is moving from the editing side – the Sunlit world – to give a perspective from the Other side, from the side of the unheard stories. That is why the killing of the Algerian demonstrators is brought up, a story not so well covered in the French media of today.
7. So what is Hidden? From a Pierrot Lunaire perspective, I would like to say that the title refers to the “hiddenness” of the by the public mass media editors untold stories. Who do we see, and who do we not see in media today, is Haneke´s question.
In poetry and music the story of Pierrot Lunaire is well known. Mostly as an icon of the modernist Auteur, or Artist, and brought forward by composer Arnold Schönberg, whose musical interpretation of the (German translation of the) poem is one of the most known expressions of the work. Haneke joins the group with this post-modern interpretation where control over mass media controls both the world and the premises for prosperity and success in life.
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Henrik Summanen
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 1:25 pm
Re: Cache (Haneke, 2005) SPOILERS!
Actually, as pointed out in another part of this forum (I think it is under "White Ribbon" thread) there is a reference to "Pierrot le Fou" by Godard, from the title texts in Caché. In fact, also "Pierrot le Fou" is an application of Pierrot Lunaire, but in very much more traditional manner. We have the dreaming artist (also called Pierrot by his girlfriend), we have the girlfriend (Columbine) who betrays Pierrot for her "real" boyfriend (Harlequin), in the end. This reference, that I was not aware of before, strengthens the interpretation above.