Funny Games

whatislife

Does anyone know why the 2008 Michael Haneke film "Funny Games" starring Tim Roth and Naomi Watts was so poorly received? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Games_%282008_film%29

I thought it was very good and portrays the manipulation, controlling of the two protganists very well although

the breaking of the 4th wall was undeserved pretentiousness.

But does any one know why it was so poorly received?

thanks

johnny_ultimate

The pointlessness of doing a shot to shot remake in English would have been a major sticking point for some reviewers. Also, given the comparative elegance and subtlety of Michael Haneke's subsequent work, many would have reevaluated it as a relatively blunt and excessive exercise. I don't necessarily agree, but there were definitely a few critics who weren't as fond of it as they were a decade previously. Others thought that as the film came out at the height of the torture porn craze that it belonged to that particular subgenre - even if Haneke clearly remade it as a very distinct reaction to films like Hostel.

Also, its not a film to be enjoyed: it's pretty much designed to make the audience feel like absolute crap. That would have further damaged its reception.

whatislife

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The pointlessness of doing a shot to shot remake in English would have been a major sticking point for some reviewers. Also, given the comparative elegance and subtlety of Michael Haneke's subsequent work, many would have reevaluated it as a relatively blunt and excessive exercise. I don't necessarily agree, but there were definitely a few critics who weren't as fond of it as they were a decade previously. Others thought that as the film came out at the height of the torture porn craze that it belonged to that particular subgenre - even if Haneke clearly remade it as a very distinct reaction to films like Hostel.

Also, its not a film to be enjoyed: it's pretty much designed to make the audience feel like absolute crap. That would have further damaged its reception.

Thanks.

So it is down to visceral reasons rather than there being something fundamentally wrong with the movie?

Strangely I didn't feel like crap and was quite happy with the movie.

Cheers again. Is there any movies that are similar to Funny Games? American Psycho is the only one that springs to mind for me.

johnny_ultimate

There's plenty. Martyrs, perhaps, would be on the same sort of level (perhaps even a bit better in some regards). Inside is another French film that's pretty much completely unrelenting like Funny Games, although much more traditionally 'horror' in many respects. Irreversible too, I suppose, in its intense, discomforting descent into hell.

Also, if you haven't seen any of Michael Haneke's filmography, Funny Games is probably amongst his 'lesser' works. Hidden (Caché), The White Ribbon, The Piano Teacher and Code Unknown are much more complex, tightly honed films that address similar themes and ideas from time to time.