Funny Games Ghost
Haneke revisited. Scenes laid in synch over one another from the film Funny Games and its U.S. remake disclose the thriller as a formal prison: constricted in the director’s scrupulously regimented structure, the mirrored protagonists once again have no chance of escape. We watch them make their way to what is now a doubled horror. Thrill turns to analysis, and reflection on the craft of filmmaking, itself.
A professional in his own company. Michael Haneke sends the twins off into a race—and measures himself by himself. “Funny Games,” as both are called, proceed in such a similar way that from the outset, the race’s outcome is clearly a solid tie. But precisely the predictability of the course and outcome is what makes every slight deviation an “aha” moment. Stefan Hafner and Karin Hammer arrange the comparison between Haneke’s twin films in the style of a ski race-analysis: as cross fading of two paths of motion tailor-made for the prescribed route—in this case, an extremely precise screenplay. They amaze us at how little leeway is left for the players in such a fastidiously predetermined framework. And surprise us with the “remains” that break out of this framework, which in the deviation, display its very own ghostly and at the same time, un-editable, human life.
(Robert Buchschwenter)
Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt
Funny Games Ghost
2012
Austria
10 min