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The Seventh Continent (1989):
"The Seventh Continent" is Michael Haneke's first feature film, and a phenomenal one at that, after years of experience in the TV industry, Haneke finally manages in 1989 to enter the cinematic field, with a quite disturbing and bleak representation of a bourgeois family who is detached from their lives. The theme of alienation has its fair share of representation in cinema (Taxi Driver, Anomalisa, Elephant, Uzak...), but this masterful director portrays it in a way that elevates his material from the rest of its kind.
The viewer is given a voyeuristic perspective into three years of the mundane life lived by an Austrian family, their ordinary behaviour and actions are constantly repeated throughout these years in an almost robotic manner, drained from any kind of emotion or life, it seems as though they have lost the traits and characteristics that made them who they are, and this is all due to the mechanical and undercurrent environment they live in, which is what the director seems to be criticising in our modern society, via his film.
One thing I love about Haneke is his great ability to communicate with the spectator mostly via images, and not dialogue, plot points that would usually be spelled out, are presented subtly with a touch of realism, which makes their effect much more powerful, and the message even clearer.
The only major problem I have with the film is the rolling text in the end, which I found completely unnecessary and somewhat contradictory to what the director is all about, the text serves as some sort of closure for the audience, an ending, which prevents anyone from interpreting what might happen next, and that is basically counterproductive...Bad move Haneke! Bad move!
Other than the above, the film features the familiar flawlessness that we would become used to from this director, the sense of framing and shot composition matches the tone of the movie, the acting is spot on even when it comes to the child actor, and the last thirty minutes of the film are simply genius.
"The Seventh Continent" is Michael Haneke's first feature film, and a phenomenal one at that, after years of experience in the TV industry, Haneke finally manages in 1989 to enter the cinematic field, with a quite disturbing and bleak representation of a bourgeois family who is detached from their lives. The theme of alienation has its fair share of representation in cinema (Taxi Driver, Anomalisa, Elephant, Uzak...), but this masterful director portrays it in a way that elevates his material from the rest of its kind.
The viewer is given a voyeuristic perspective into three years of the mundane life lived by an Austrian family, their ordinary behaviour and actions are constantly repeated throughout these years in an almost robotic manner, drained from any kind of emotion or life, it seems as though they have lost the traits and characteristics that made them who they are, and this is all due to the mechanical and undercurrent environment they live in, which is what the director seems to be criticising in our modern society, via his film.
One thing I love about Haneke is his great ability to communicate with the spectator mostly via images, and not dialogue, plot points that would usually be spelled out, are presented subtly with a touch of realism, which makes their effect much more powerful, and the message even clearer.
The only major problem I have with the film is the rolling text in the end, which I found completely unnecessary and somewhat contradictory to what the director is all about, the text serves as some sort of closure for the audience, an ending, which prevents anyone from interpreting what might happen next, and that is basically counterproductive...Bad move Haneke! Bad move!
Other than the above, the film features the familiar flawlessness that we would become used to from this director, the sense of framing and shot composition matches the tone of the movie, the acting is spot on even when it comes to the child actor, and the last thirty minutes of the film are simply genius.