Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
I am going to do Funny Games dirty, I think, in as much as I knew the trick of it long before watching it. And I think the film, and presumably the later remake, would work much better without knowing that, and therefore I caution you, gentle listener, about progressing further if you haven’t seen it, and although it’s a 1997 joint, that just means there’s a generation of people who might not have heard of it. Consider yourself suitably bespoilerwarned.
The well-heeled Schober family, Anna, Georg, and Georg Jr. played by Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, and Stefan Clapczynski, head off to their lakeside holiday home, boat in tow. Before they’ve had a chance to do so much as settle in, they are bothered by Peter and Paul, Frank Giering and Arno Frisch, supposedly to borrow a few eggs on behalf of their neighbours.
That is not their real intention, as they begin a violent home invasion that’s initially straight out of a slasher movie, were it not for the moments where Paul launches another invasion, through the fourth wall. In terms of the plot recaps, I suppose home invasion, with the terrified family trying to escape and suffering violent indignities for it is pretty much all you need. Soon the more interesting aspect is that there fourth wall endangerment, and I suppose the attempt at making the audience complicit in the suffering of the characters.
Frankly I feel that might be a little too generous a spin on it, particularly as Haneke himself apparently calls this an incredibly violent, but otherwise pointless film. I’m not even sure it’s technically all that violent, as almost all of the violence and the most shocking acts occur off camera, which arguably gives them more impact than a graphic close up as might be seen in the horror flicks I presume he’s critiquing.
The very act of smashing the fourth wall in such a manner means that Haneke is again keeping us at arms length from the characters and their struggles, and certainly for me knowing this was the real funny game of the film definitely kept me from being even slightly invested in it, even in the early running, so any sucker punch this might have brought to the audience was scouted and negated. Which does leave this film feeling, well, pointless. So, um, yay?
I don’t quite know how to take Funny Games in the abstract – I’ve seen it said it’s a criticism of the Germanic Heimatfilm, homeland-films, although it seems as well tailored to be a complete rejection of horror film tropes and concepts. Which of course I completely agree with, it’s a trash genre for trash people, but I’m not sure Funny Games would be convincing anyone else of this.
I will add again that the Haneke table stakes are suitably met, even in this relatively early outing, with solid turns in front of and behind the camera. It’s just that the film that’s been so precisely made seems to have no precise point. It’s an interesting conversation piece, I suppose, and a fairly audacious thing to sneak in front of audiences, but I’m not sure it’s going to last in my mind all that long. A somewhat caveated recommendation, then, but it’s more likely to land with the audience of people who listen to movie podcasts than general audiences I would think, so on that basis give it a look.