I feel like lots of people on here have seen one or two of this guy's movies, but he's never really mentioned by name. I had only seen Cache until I saw The Seventh Continent last night, and it's one of the more unique films I've ever seen, sort of like American Beauty minus what little levity that film had.
I'm going to do my first director series with this guy and watch all of his stuff. Cache and The Piano Teacher are his best known films, but he's put out quite a few. His first three form a trilogy about postmodern alienation and its consequences, and the rest explore similarly dark topics. He's also known for not using a score in his films.

Any fans?

i'm a huge fan of the piano teacher, as i've stated a bunch of times here. cache was really good, not my favorite though. i'm probably going to go see the remake of funny games when it comes out, it'll be a good theater experience i think

Yeah, Haneke's great. I thought we had another thread for him? Anyways, I enjoyed Piano Teacher immensely and Cache explores some pretty relevant themes regarding modern intellectualism. The throat-slitting scene is pretty brutal.

Time of the Wolf is a rather unconventional take on the end-of-the-world scenario, some kids I went to film school ripped off the ending mercilessly. Which is to say that it's good. I'm looking forward to the Funny Games remake, have yet to see the original.

That's just on that one film though.

I watched Benny's Video recently. Almost a harder watch than The Seventh Continent, but just as good. Haneke might be the best moralist around.

Watched Cache the other night - my first Haneke. Not impressed. It felt like a tired (and somewhat silly) examination of a worn-out subject that's been explored with more depth by others. His style seemed a little dull, too. The throat-cutting was a nice punctuation, though.

Going to need some explanation, young man.

Well, Lost HIghway touched on the same plot a decade beforehand.

Basically, it seemed like it was saying "Living with guilt sucks." So what? This is nothing new. Not to mention the guilt was coming from something he did when he was six years old, which is pretty stupid. Woody Allen examined similar themes in a much more interesting way in Crimes and Misdemeanors years ago.

There's also the struggling marriage element, but again, nothing new.

If you think that's all there was to it, that's quite alright, but I think you're being pretty superficial. Haneke's films are supposed to be sort of a litmus test for reaction, since he essentially doesn't judge his characters. He prefers the audience to do that.

Who do you think was responsible for the videotapes?

I also don't really give a shit if subject matter has been tackled before, because it's subject matter. It's going to be used over and over again. I thought Haneke's take on it was very potent, but I usually do. Every film I've seen of his has been about subject matter I've seen lots of times (from suburban alienation to guilt to media desensitization) but he does it unlike anybody else. Of course, this is all opinion, but I don't like what I feel are unfairly superficial takes on artwork.

I don't think the videotapes were necessarily the work of anyone in particular. I think they were just a physical metaphor for the guilt picking away at the protagonist, so I don't really think who was behind it was the point.

As far as subject matter being retackled, it only annoys me when I feel like someone else has already done it much better. For example, Chinatown said such a definitive, eloquent word on corruption that I don't see why anyone needs to go after that theme again unless they have something different/more interesting to say about it. Otherwise they're just being redundant.

Anyway, Cache feels like a hollow film to me, so to someone such as you who thinks it's deep, I could see why you think I'm being superficial. But if I feel completely empty and nonplused when a film ends, I don't think that says much for the film's content.

Unless that's exactly how the characters are feeling too, no?

What, hollow and empty? That's not what I mean. I didn't feel that way because the characters did - I felt that way because the film was vacuous. Even if the emptiness did come from the characters feelings, how hard is it to make an audience feel depressed and empty? Any asshole can do that.

Different strokes, I guess. If you didn't like this one, you won't like any of his other stuff. I personally love him.