michael haneke // not look away
not that he’s been around for ages making films, but i came to michael haneke a little late - last year in fact - and once i saw the piano teacher (thank you for the urging!) i was irrevocably captured by this filmmaker and easily consider him one of my top 5 living directors.
what initially seized me (and still clutches me) is not the violence depicted (emotional and physical), but the way in which it is depicted. time and time again, i find myself staring at the screen, mouth agape, silenced by what i’ve been shown, and it is because i have seen what has happened, completely within the context of a situation (often in a wide tableaux), that i feel joyfully violated in some way. haneke, who composes and operates his own shots, does not frequently go in for gory macro or slow-mo details - to let us admire the aesthetics of some close-up abstraction - and keeps his frame back and restrained.
we’re left to look at the people in the scene not disjoined parts.
as some moment approaches… i still find myself anticipating some cut-away… but haneke rarely does. and this distance seems so much more brutal and revelatory in some sense. we are watching people, not cinema.
this, of course, is completely contradicted (though to equally converse means) in his first feature.
two things come to mind when i think about this “observational” aesthetic which reminds me of some frightened child standing in the corner, unable to move from some horror or primal scene (and maybe don’t ask why. haha).
first, the bathroom scene in the shining reminds me of the feeling that i get when i watch haneke’s films (though sustained to the nth degree)… when we see grady and jack back and forth as it is revealed that jack has Always been the caretaker at the overlook… i’ve always felt outside this scene in some sense (in a good way) - like i was eavesdropping and heard something i should not have. and from the start of the scene when jack looks long at grady, you’re just sitting there, anticipating some great twist and perversion… and you’re not let down.
second, i also think of the story akira kurosawa told time and time again about how when he was a child, after the great kanto earthquake and the subsequent fires, his brother took him out to view the aftermath. in the rubble and charred bodies and bloated corpses in the rivers, the child kurosawa wanted to close his eyes and turn away… but his brother commanded him to look… to see what was truly there.
i feel some of this is all processing in the work of haneke. he seems to see great travesties in the world. he’s a moralist with no agenda nor answer. we’re so brutal to one another and his films seek out why this happens… and in doing so, does not afford us the comfort of turning away at our most depraved and fearful. he shows us as we would rather think we are not, and implores us not to look away.
michael haneke interviewed by alexander kluge
michael haneke interview / funny games
michael haneke interview / benny’s video
michael haneke interview / the seventh continent
the ideas and fingers of david lynch
not sure there is anyone who captures the american psyche so perfectly and sincerely in all it’s genuine complexity and absurdity. ideas and metaphors filter without any blemish of adulteration or second guessing. he stands as proof and inspiration that rigorous adherence to singular inner voice will connect and will resonate.
david lynch masterclass / part 1
david lynch cooks quinoa / part 1
david lynch - don’t look at me / part 1
some things i have learned and loved about bergman:
- there is no close-up like a bergman close-up
- beautiful, unnerving, and enigmatic films can be constructed in 90 minutes (or less)
- no line need exist between “avant-garde” and “mainstream” cinema
- take every charged and messed-up moment to it’s maximum potential
- silence, silence, silence
- even our darkest suffering is ridiculously comical. don’t be afraid to pull the rug out from under the characters or audience
interview with ingmar bergman // part 1 of 5
documentary interview with andrey tarkovsky // part 1 of 11
a call to arms.
FARINELLI, IL CASTRATO // farinelli
the depth and patina of the costumes and art direction are nearly second to none - serving in perfect harmony the themes of identity, avarice, and sacrifice.
