Disturbing And Uncomfortable: Haneke’s “Funny Games”

Monday, March 01, 2010

Phnom Penh: Austrian director Michael Haneke is the Todd Solondz of the thriller genre: Without thought, he will bring up the most disturbing and uncomfortable of topics and play them out with a poet’s finesse and a keen sense of shock. His controversial feature film “FUNNY GAMES” (1997, 108mins) is a filmic experiment. Two young well-educated men hold a family hostage and torture them with sadistic games. Like the film’s two tormentors who enjoy batting about their prey with games of psychological manipulation, Haneke, in turn, seems to take great delight in putting his audience through the wringer, only to turn around and ask what we’re all so worked up about. The film is on Sunday at 7 PM.