Funny Games

Michael Haneke talks to Serge Toubiana eight years after Funny Games came out. He is charming, intelligent and erudite, with long white hair and a well-groomed beard. As interviews go, this is compelling.

He speaks of “the pleasure of experiencing the thrill” of making the film, which is “a portrayal of violence” that follows on a theme originated in Benny’s Video, which he made in 1992, using Ulrich Muhe in the role of the father. He says of the young killers: “they are not characters, they are archetypes.” He told the family to play tragedy and the boys to play comedy.

Intellectually he is probing the public’s capacity for voyeurism. “I wanted to show that we are always accomplices in violent films,” by which he means that to be there in the cinema and keep watching is an act of compliance.

"This is the only film I have made to provoke the audience,” he says. It certainly succeeded at Cannes that year when people were extreme in their responses, either in favour or against. “I find it the height of hypocrisy to get to the end and then complain.”

As for the plot, he has this to say: “The rules are changed and catastrophe is unavoidable.”

Listening to him, with that wicked glint in his eye, it is difficult to tell whether he is being entirely serious, although it is always a delight.

In addition to the trailer, there is a trailer reel for Guy X, Primer, The Proposition, Battle In Heaven