Michael+Haneke

**Style:**
-depicts violence as it really is rather than portray violence in a positive light. -Presents everything in most distanced and austere way -touches upon the core of the problems in a blunt and straightforward way by immersing into social, political and cultural context. -provokes reflection and serious deliberations. -features staged realism which is a cinematographic approach of presenting diegetic events as overtly staged and modeled in order to connect them to real social issues. -provocations -reveals the coldness of Western society -Characters in the movies have obscure motivations and ambiguous goals; clear narrative resolutions are impossible to determine -Episodic and elliptical narratives. -long take over montage and static shots over camera movement

Work Cited: [] [] []

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=** Funny Games **= The movie ‘Funny games’ is a psychological thriller film in which two young men with sadistic nature encages an innocent family for no reason and tortures the family by playing inhuman games. The family wants to run away from the cruel game that the murderers play, but the family is incapable of it. Rather than provides the audience with a hope of family’s survival, the movie realistically portrays ‘violence’ in this movie. The major theme in this movie is the family’s involvement in game, their inability to escape from the murderers, and violence in society.

In the movie, the two murderers are portrayed as absolute figures, which have control over the entire movie. Such portrayal illustrates the theme that family inability to escape from what the psychotic two-man call ‘murder game’. For the mis-en-scene, the movie starts with the extreme bird-eye long shot of the George family's car on the high way going to their new house. The opening scene gives the audiences the impression that it is one scene of a video game, in which cars on the high way are the game characters. This game-like opening scene implies that the family is already involved in the game even though they are not aware of such fact. Also, from the bird eye angle, the audience gets the feeling that there is an absolute figure who is watching and waiting for the family coming. Such suggests that the family is already in control of the murderers and cannot escape from them.

In the entire movie, both the two murders are in white clothes. White color usually symbolizes angels or other celestial creature that are not palpable. Here, the two murderers are wearing white costumes because they are the game’s absolute figure, which have total control over the movie. This mis-en-scene suggests that the family cannot even touch the murderers and get out from their control.

Moreover, the motif of family’s innocence is shown when the closed up of the family in the car is shown. In this scene, while the family’s innocent faces are still shown, the background music changes from peaceful one to heavy-metal one. The family does not aware of the fact that they are already part of the game, but such music change implies that they are already in trouble. The music creates intensity and horrifying mood in this scene. Also, the very intense and crazed background music contrasts with the family’s peaceful and know-nothing faces. Such contrast intensifies the family’s innocence of what will be coming and foreshadows that they cannot evade from the cruel game that is already started.

The director’s feature of static shots over camera movement is shown in the scene where only the mother and father are left in the house with the dead body of their son. In this scene, camera is stationary for certain amount of time, reflecting the despair the family is facing. Even though the family is brutally tortured by the murderers, they cannot do anything to prevent from their murder to happen. The motionless camera reflects the family’s inability to escape from the murderers and its hopeless mind. It is director’s special choice because such camera movement also provides the audience with hopeless feeling. While the inhuman game is going on, what the audience can do is just staring at the continuous murder.

In the movie, Micheal Haneke breaks the audience’s expectation and rather lets the audience feel very despairing. One of the common horror’s movie’s features is that it provides catharsis to audience. The audience feels catharsis when it watches evil people are punished and their tragic end and misfortune. However, this movie avoids that feature because camera always pans away from a violent scene. Such camera movement prevents the audience from feeling catharsis. The only scene actual violence is shown is when the mother shoots one of the murderers, Peter. By showing the death of Peter, the director Haneke seems to give in the audience’s expectation that murderers will lose the game. However, once again the director evades the audience’s expectation by letting the other murderer rewind the scene with the remote control. Through such editing, Haneke, as he said in his interview, depicts violence as it really us rather than portray violence in a positive light. This absurd editing control continuously reassures the audience the family’s hopeless future.

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=** Amour **= Georges and Anne are an old couple who enjoys their old days. However, Anne's sudden right body paralysis and dementia put a stop to their happiness. Georges tries his best to recover his wife's condition, never being frustrated or annoyed. But her wife's health gets worse everyday, and finally she gets to the point where she can barely speak a word. Georges wants to get everything back to the time when he and Anne were happy together. As time goes on, Georges feels hopeless and gets mentally and physically burden by Anne's childish manner and her attempt to suicide. What Georges needs is rest, and here in the movie rest means death. The movie mainly discusses life and death and how inevitable the death is to both Anne and Georges.
 * Plot&Theme:**

This is the shot after he could not help but kill suffering Anne by covering her face with a pillow. In this shot, Haneke uses lighting to illustrate the death that Georges is facing shadow slowly overwhelms Georges' body from his leg part to upper body part. The dark shadow covering his half body reflects his mind that he wants to die since he feels it is meaningless to sustain the life without Anne. He then realizes he will be dead soon because he starts to feel the pain in his legs.The dark lighting gradually covering his body suggests that death is also imminent for him.
 * Lighting:**

In this mis-en-scene, the prop dove is used to convey the theme of the movie. The dove, in the shot, has already appeared twice through the movie. The dove begins to appear when Anne loses her original nature and turns into a child due to her sickness. Georges drives the dove out when it emerges for the first time, but for the second time he catches and cuddle it. The former action is done when Anne still alive, but the latter is done when he kills Anne with his bare hands. The dove here symbolizes death and severe reality. At first, he expels the dove as if he cannot accept the reality that Anne, who has always been there with him, wants to commit suicide because she suffers so much. On the other hand, his behavior towards the dove changes because for the second time, he catches and cuddles it. Such shows that he starts to accept the inevitable death because it is after he gives in to harsh reality that he helps Anne kill herself to comfort her.
 * Mis-en-scene:**

Through the entire scene, no background music is involved. Rather, silence dominates the scene with some digetic foley sounds. Silence in the movie reflects the absence of Anne, who was killed by Georges. The foley sound of Georges suggests that he is the one who alives, but silence comes again as Georges goes out with phantom of Anne. Such suggests that Georges was ahead to the death. Basically, sound in this scene deals with the motif of death.
 * Sound:**


 * Cinematography:**

A static shot over camera movement is one of the optimal styles of Michael Haneke. The most explicit static shot is used in this scene where Georges exits following the apparition of his dead wife, Anne. The camera stand still after he exits, and such stationary camera movement suggest the death of Georges. The fact that Georges goes out and never comes back implies that Georges chooses to die following Anne. Moreover, unmoving camera make the audience more focus on the setting, which is empty house in this case. The empty house also reflects the motif of death. The house has been full of life with the presence of Anne and Georges, but as Anne dies the house becomes lifeless. Now with the Georges' leaving, the house is in utter emptiness. The static camera movement on the dark and empty house further emphasizes the desolateness.

Montage of short shots of Georges is shown in this scene to show the motif of death. The montage of him includes him writing the letter, having white flowers representing appreciation for the dead, arranging the closet, and masking the door with tape. Those short shots seem to be irrelevant, they are actually the gradual process of Georges' preparation for his death. After Georges kills his wife with his bare hands, he feels left alone without Anne's presence. He has been devoted his life to Anne and did his best when Anne gets ill. It is natural for him to choose to die following the death of Anne, instead of choosing to be alive. Even though the direct scene of Georges' death is not shown in the film, from such montage the audience can assume that he finally chooses to be dead following Anne.
 * Editing:**

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= The White Ribbon =

-In the movie, many static shots were used. In this particular shot, where Martin and Clara are being punished by their violating the town's principles that children should remain innocent and pure, the static shot is used. The camera stays static even when Martin and Clara disappear from the shot. It only focuses on the closed door and the audience can only hear what's going on behind the door. This is one way of Haneke's choice because he indirectly portrays the violence.
 * Long take**

-The movie title 'the white ribbon' is a significant symbol in the movie. As color white symbolizes innocence, the white ribbons presented in the movie represent innocence and purity. Since little, people in the town have to wear them on their wrists to show such qualities. Those ribbons are like handcuffs to little children because those children are obliged to wear them until they ponder about what they have done and adjust the behaviors.
 * Symbolism**

The narrator is a protagonist who recounts his memory throughout the movie. He serves to create serious tone, foreshadow events, and recount his memory.
 * Narrator**

-Even though the film was made in 2009, in which color films dominate, this movie is in black and white. Black and white was used in the movie in order to reflect the time period the movie took place more vividly and explicitly. Also, it creates colder and more severe mood in the movie.
 * Black and White**

-Throughout the entire movie, no musical background sound is heard. Moreover, only diegetic foley sounds are used in the movie. The fact that the sound can be heard to both the characters and the audience reflects that the director's style of showing violence as it is rather than addressing indirectly.
 * No background music**


 * Use of bird eye shot and worm's eye shot**

In this shot, both bird's eye shot and worm's eye shot were used to establish specific relationship between two characters. Worm's eye shot was used for the man because he is the dominant figure here. On the other hand, bird's eye shot was used for the woman in this shot. Such shot provides the audience with the feeling that the man is looking down at her, making the woman subservient.

In this shot, people act in uniformity. Contrast to the narration that says the village got back to 'normal', uniformed acting rather indicates anomaly in the village. Those people seem somewhat inhumane because they act so exact that they are like robots. Such inhumane acting reflects their unconditional following of the rule that they should keep children pure and innocent.
 * Acting**

In the movie, low key lighting is frequently use to light the adults. Adults force children to maintain purity and keep away from lust, greed, and impurity. However, those adults themselves are sacrilegious. The doctor who lusts his daughter, the minister who treats his children with violence, and the baron who avoids responsibility. The town is in fact full of madness and deception. Such low key lighting suggests the duality of the adults.
 * Low key lighting**

In this scene, the woman says that she attempts to leave the town because she is tired of persecution, threats, and perverse acts of revenge. While talking, she seems like looking directly at the audience. Her attempt to breaking the fourth wall between her and the audience conveys that she tries to unveil to the audience the truth behind the town. However, the fact that she is not actually looking directly at the audience shows that the truth is not going to be revealed by her.
 * Breaking the fourth wall**

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In the movie, Georges, the host of a literary TV show, receives a series of surveillance tapes which contain recording of exterior of his residence. He belittles seriousness of the tapes because he believed that it was done by his son's friend. However, as Gorges gets more tapes that reveal private lives of family and disturbing drawings, he tries to find the criminal. When he receives one tape, he suspects Majid, whose parents worked for Georges' parents before they died. Orphaned Majid was almost being adopted by Georges' parents, but he could not because Georges, who did not want him to be adopted, told lie about Majid to his parents. Consequently, he goes to Majid and tells Majid to stop sending the tapes. But Majid denies involvement. Georges keeps on visiting Majid because he wants Majid to admit that Majid is the one who threatens his life. What Georges needs is his admitting of his guilt. He kept on denying his guilt of sending Majid to an orphanage, saying that he was so little that he did not want to share the room with somebody else. However, because of his denial, Majid committed suicide who could not withstand the insult of Georges, and Georges locked himself in his dark room. The theme Michael Haneke discuss through Georges family is the collapse of middle class family.
 * Plot & Theme**

The theme of the movie fits in to other Michael Haneke's works because as illustrated in other movies' themes the movie reveals reality as it really is rather than in a positive light. The movie illustrates the real consequences of not admitting of guilt, not making incoherent happy ending.

1. The first image is one scene of the video tapes Georges gets. In the scene, recorded George's residence's exterior is being shown. It provides insight into the theme that he should admit his guilt, because it is one scene in the video tapes that disturbs Georges. The content of the tapes reminds him of the guilty past. However, since he denies his guilt, he tries to find who sent the tapes in order to suppress revelation of his guilt.

2. The inciting incident is when Georges gets from the unknown a video tape that has the recording of his residence. This incident leads Georges to feel disturbed and find the criminal, who turned out to be Majid.

3. Georges tries to ignore the tape, considering it to be prank of his son's friend. But the balance is set up when a series of video tape is sent to his office, home, and even his son's school. Now he is aware of the seriousness of the event.

4. The Set up for act 2 is the scene where Georges reviews the tapes he received. In one tape, the exterior of the house where Georges was grown up is recorded. From that video, he starts to suspect that the criminal will be someone who has known him since little.

5. The threshold guardian is Majid. Georges is the renowned host of the literary tv show. He has not had a serious concern in his life, having content family and stable job. However, the emergence of Majid prevents Georges from having peaceful life. When Georges realizes Majid is the one who sent the tapes, it reminded himself of guilty past. Because it was Goerges who lied to his parents that Majid tried to harm Georges, Majid was sent to the orphanage. Accordingly, Majid tries to revenge Georges by destroying Georges' life.

6. -Other conflict occur between Georges and Anne because when they receive a tape that recorded a street and a low-rent hallway. Georges thinks he should visit the place alone and finds out who is sending the tapes. On the other hand, Anne claims that he should go with police. -The conflict also occur between Majid and Georges because Georges suspects Majid to be the one sending the disturbing tapes, but Majid deny the involvement.

7. The reversal of fortune occurs when Georges visits the low-rent hallway that was recorded in the tape and meets Majid, whose parents worked under him. Before he encounters with Majid, he did not consider the tapes to be serious. However, as he realizes that it was Majid who sent the tapes, he starts to think that Mjid, who has lived unfortunate life because of Georges' lie, tries to revenge. From this point he is obsessed with the thought that Majid is trying to destroy his life.

8. The conflict of the second half of act 2 occurs when Georges' son does not come home from school and Georges cannot contact him. Georges suspects Majid of kidnapping his son, so he calls the police and makes Majid being arrested. But soon Majid is released because it turned out to be that Georges' son was at the friend's home

9. At Majid's invitation, Georges visits Majid's apartment. But in front of Georges, Majid slashes his own throat in front of Georges. This event leads Georges to face his greatest challenge because he could not settle himself down after seeing such a violence scene.

10. The rising action of act 3 is that Majid's son goes to Georges' office in an attempt to have a conversation. However, Georges, who values reputation the most, avoids talking to the son in his office. This leads to the climax in the movie.

11. The climax of the movie occurs when Majid's son does not leave the place and enraged Georges brings the son to the bathroom and has a quarrel. Georges is now confused and obsessed because Majid committed suicide in front of him. This is the second time Georges leads Majid to become unfortunate. If he had chosen to admit his guilt of the past and apologized to Majid, the whole thing would have not been this bad.

12. The falling action is that Georges isolate himself in the dark room after having two pills. The world has changed badly for Georges because different from how he looked in first few scene- a prominent tv show host, he now chooses to escape from the reality by isolating himself in the room.

13. The last scene shows long take shot of young Majid running away but soon being caught by the stranger and sent to the orphanage. This scene is included to remind the audience what finally leads to this misfortune.

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= Code Unknown = The thematic and stylistic motif in the movie 'Code Unknown' fit in with those of Michael Haneke's other films in that the movie deals with human's ugly quality using the static shots. The movie consists of the fragmented series of connecting stories about Anne and Georges. The major theme of the movie is indifference of human, which fits well in to other movie's theme because it is one kind of violence. In the scene where Anne is sexually harassed by two Arabian men, no other people in the bus stands up to help Anne. They don't even pay attention to what's going on around Anne. Even though other passengers do not directly hurt Anne, indifference towards being harassed Anne is also one kind of violence for Anne. This whole scene is taken by static shot, which is one of the stylistic, iconic choices of Michael Haneke, to illustrate the theme of human's difference towards each other. By not manipulating the camera angle, Haneke once again shows the reality as it really is. Such static shot makes the audience feel like they are one of the passengers watching, and the long take over static shot represents stationary people staring at the incident without meddling in.

**Iconic choices in Funny Games**

 * In this scene, one of the murderer breaks the fourth wall between the audiences and him. Seeing the violent scenes, the audiences are fascinating and horrified at the same time. They feel fascinating because they know they are not directly related to the violence in the scene. However, Michael Haneke lets the murderer directly talk to the audiences, warning the audiences of their defenseless. The audiences think that they are completely intact from violence portrayed in the movie, but the director suggests that people should be alert since violence can happened to anyone at anytime.
 * While Michael Hanke barely includes any music in his movies, he inserted intense heavy metal music in the movie 'Funny Games'. The heavy metal music is exceptionally conspicuous in the scene where the son of Anne escapes from the murderers and the murderer tries to catch the son. This scene should provide the audiences with the hope that the son will be successful in escaping from the murderers. However, the intense heavy metal music played in the background foreshadows that the son will be soon caught by the murderers and can never run away from the murderers. Such music is effective in that it well conveys the craziness of the scene. The little son is being chased down by the murderers, who does it for no reason. A man's shouting in high pitch further emphasizes insaneness and makes audience uncomfortable.

**Iconic choices in Amour**

 * In the movie 'Amour', Michael Haneke's iconic choice of mis-en-scene can be seen in the scene above. As Anne's illness gets worse and worse, Anne and Georges refuse to have anyone encroach their home, which is a only place they two can comfort and rest. It is because he does not want anyone meddle with in their problem, and she does not want anyone to witness her being weak due to the illness. The closed door suggests their closed mind towards the world. However, in the scene where their daughter revisits the empty home, all the doors in the home are open. They've been too sensitive towards the outsiders since they are going awry from their normal lifestyle. The death of Anne and Georges is what they need in order for them to refind the balance in their minds. Thus, the open doors suggest open minds of Anne and Georges after the death.
 * Another Michael Haneke's choice is made through mis-en-scene in the scene where the interior of Anne and Georges' house is shown. Haneke uses mis-en-scene in this shot in order to convey the motif of death. It is evident that in the shot, doors are placed in perfect symmetry. Seen from outside, current lives of Anne and Georges seem perfectly symmetrical to the lives they had in the past before Anne gets illness. Georges treats Anne same as how he treated her before, as if Anne's illness has never occurred. Moreover, Georges keeps on assuring Anne that she will be alright, shining positive lights on her illness. However, asymmetrical interior of the two doors suggests that their inner minds has already been torn down. Georges is being exhausted by looking after Anne who's turning childish, and Anne cannot accept the reality that she cannot control herself. Their lives are already irrecoverable. This mis-en-scene basically informs the audience that only death can resolve their inner conflict.

**Iconic choices in Code Unknown**

 * One of the motif of the movie 'code unknown' is 'butterfly effect'. Butterfly effect indicates that small event causes whole different, massive consequences. One scene, in which one woman is forced to enter into the flight gate, suddenly appear in the movie. This scene seems like a very random and incoherent scene. However, inclusion of the scene is a director's choice to illustrate the motif effectively. That woman was a beggar appeared in the first scene as the victim of Jean's rude conduct. She was just a beggar in the street, but with the Jean's rude behavior, the police emerged. In the checking identification process, the woman's illegal stay was revealed, so she was forcefully sent to her native land. If Jean had not done such bad conduct, the woman would not have forced to expel from the country.
 * In the very first scene before the movie starts, a little girl uses body language in an attempt to convey a message to her classmate. But her classmates continue to miss the message that the girl tries to deliver. This scene is purposely included in the beginning of the movie in order to hint at the motif of lack of communication. The movie, a lot of times, deals with devoid of communication among humans caused from indifference towards each other. The miscommunication between the little children portrays cold western society that they lack communication since little.

**Iconic choices in Hidden,Cache**

 * An iconic choice that Michael Haneke made in the movie 'Hidde, Cache' can be seen in this mis-en-scene. This mis-en-scene shows the interior of the George's house, where the wall is fully occupied with the tremendous amount of the books. Books often symbolize intelligence and the well-educated. It was the director's choice that Georges is placed among the books in order to suggest that he is well-educated. Simultaneously, the mis-en-scene makes the audience feel like Georges is overwhelmed by the compacted books. This represents the burden and fear he receives from the unknown. He has been tortured by the series of videos sent to his house from the unknown. Even though the unknown does not physically harms Georges, he uses silent violence to drive Georges in to the corner. This conveys the motif of the movie that no matter one is rich or highly educated, everyone is susceptible to violence.
 * Another director's choice is revealed in the scene, where Majid summons Georges to his house and slashes his throat in front of Georges. This scene characterizes the director's frequent use of static shots to convey violence as it really is rather than shine positive light. The movie has provided the audience with the hope that Majid's innocence will be finally proved. However, inclusion of this violent scene further makes the audience fall in despair.

**Iconic choices in The White Ribbon**

 * The iconic choice in this mis-en-scene is the director's use of cloth color to illustrate the motif of innocence and lust. In this scene, most of the children and women are wearing white and most of the men are wearing black. The white color represents the women and children's innocence and the black color signifies the men's desire. This mis-en-scene is so effective in conveying such motifs because black and white color intermixing in the distinction line delivers that the town is undergoing a chaos because 'black' approaches toward 'white'.
 * In the movie, children are always punished for being unholy, forced to remain innocence by having the white ribbon around their wrists. The woman is the dominant figure here who uses violence to control children's behavior. Thus, she sees the children with an bird's eye view, which is often used by the more powerful figure to view the less powerful one. This director's choice well demonstrates power relation in the town.