the last laugh

Dear Michael Haneke,

On behalf of the American film community, I want to say welcome and I'm sorry. Your shot-by-shot English-language remake of your 1997 German-language film, "Funny Games", was not perhaps as warmly received as you wished it to be. Forget that A.O. Scott called it a "fraud" or Nathan Lee of Film Comment reduced it down to a "stupid movie." You don't need those guys. After all, how many American moviegoers trust those guys when they run in droves to see "10,000 B.C." or "Fool's Gold"? That's not to discount the importance of the critic, but it's clear you are after the ever-reliable niche of Americans who will see just about anything, no matter how gruesomely violent or tortuously sadistic. I'm not sure such a well regarded filmmaker such as yourself wants to be considered in the same sub-stratosphere of films such as "Saw", "Hostel", or any of those other cheaply made and cheaply vacuous films that spawn dozens of sequels, but that was your intention and perhaps that was just lost in translation. What we consider art here could be trash in your native Europe, and vice versa. And that's where the problem begins.

Throughout film history, particularly American film, we have grown a feverish hunger for gore and carnage. We're more offended by the amount of thrusts in a sex scene than how many bullet holes we see pierce the body. Oh how our country's moral messages can be so beautifully mixed. For you Mr. Haneke, this is prime material for subversion and reflecting that glorious cinematic mirror at our appetite for blood sport. We want it. We need it. We're never shocked by it. I have been reading some reviews and reactions to the film, and I can also attest to my own filmgoing experience, that many people have walked out of the theater due to the graphic nature of the torture in the film. What about those of us who remained and came out unharmed? Maybe we've been watching too many horror films, gangster films, cowboy films, war films or whatever genre and have slowly become desensitized to the act of violence. It's been glamorized, deglamorized, theorized, and scapegoated in the face of larger social problems, to the point of it having no meaning or weight anymore. There's where we need your help Mr. Haneke because you can make it real for us again. What I think most people find distressing about your film is that it could happen to them. We live in a country that tells us we're the most comfortable and safest place in the world and if we buy the kinds of foods, listen to the right kind of music, and raise our children the right way, everything will be as pristine and pretty as an Ikea catalog. Your point of view might be twisted, but it never wavers, similar to the cinematic giants you are so clearly influenced by, Stanley Kubrick and Alred Hitchcock. Hitchcock did murder a naked and vulnerable Janet Leigh in "Pyscho" and people think it's brilliant now. Stanley Kubrick allowed Malcolm McDowell to kill a helpless old lady with a ceramic penis, and look how lovingly we think of it now. How can we criticize you when Gasper Noe had some dude simulate rape on Monica Bellucci for nine very long, very unsettling minutes in "Irreversible"? These films are not for everybody, but they can be appreciated by somebody and if violence can so often be shown without consequence and in turn, made to be sexy, then why not explore it in its extremity to show how awful it can truly be.

And lastly, don't let them get you down Michael. You've been making films for decades. Good ones. If you want American audiences to love you, re-release "Cache", and not at the end of the year when it's competing in a cluttered market with the feel good holiday films and award hungry prestige pics. It's perhaps your most Hitchcockian film, and his impression on American film will never be forgotten, and is often imitated by less accomplished filmmakers who earn millions. (yes, Shyamalan, I'm referring to you) People will recognize Juliette Binoche and it has just enough blood and voyeuristic creep factor to be loved and successful. If you really want to shock them, please re-release "The Piano Teacher." You have a knack for directing fine performances from some really electric actress (Naomi Watts is sensational in "Funny Games", by the way), and this film was no exception for Isabelle Huppert. You make really well crafted, fine looking films that have an aesthetic value, and shock, but shock that isn't for masturbation's sake. I'm just one voice in a million that can't possibly change the public's or critic's reception of you or your films, but you can count on me to keep seeing them. "Funny Games" isn't your best, but it doesn't deserve the drubbing it has received. Go back to your more mature style of films that involve geo-politics, issue of race and culture clash, and psychologically complex people, and once again you will be the toast of international cinema. Drop the post-modern wink winks and show them what you're really made of, because there's quite a bit there to love and hate. And aren't those usually the best artists?

Keep ya head up.

W.