Having seen most of Michael Haneke's filmic efforts, I was eager to finally see his debut movie which is listed as 'drama'. Based upon a true incident, from what I've read, this outing is certainly dramatic; and it is also truly horrific.
Cleanliness is next to godliness, as the saying goes. Beginning in 1987, with the opening moving scene, we are inside a car inside a carwash, at a snail's pace: water, soap, brushes all intermingled with the interminable machine noise drowning any attempt at conversation between the occupants: the Schober family, Anna (Birgtit Doll), Georg (Dieter Berner) and Evi (Leni Tanzer), as we learn.
And so, as the car - gleaming clean, refreshed, sparkling - finally exits, it passes a billboard advertising Australia, the seventh continent, as a welcoming place to live in, and displays perhaps a typical beach scene in that country. Only ... it isn't typical at all: in fact, it's a fantasy beach, a dream beach that cannot possibly exist. Careful examination of that photo will tell you why....
So Australia is a symbol used by Haneke as a counterpoint to the mundane daily existence and routine of the Schober family: a dream country to which they wish to emigrate, or so it seems. The Schober nuclear family is middle class, with an average suburban residence, an average Ford for commuting, in an average part of any Austrian city; Evi is in school, and both parents are suitably employed. The trio is having a moderately "good life", despite some issues with Evi's school and the parents' work, if not yet la dolce vita in another country.
For most of this story, we stay with the family at home, at work, at shopping, at relatives, with others, at doctors etc., etc.; and, for much of that time, seeing only a face, or hand, or back, or feet - almost never a full figure, even in bed when the parents have sex - tiredly, listlessly, dutifully. Dialogue is sparse, to say the least. Cinematic minimalism at its best - or worst, depending upon your point of view; and there is no music soundtrack.
Until, one day in 1989, Georg and Anna resign from their jobs and withdraw all their cash; he sells the car, goes shopping for a variety of hardware and tools, and has a great mass of food delivered to their address. Which, incidentally, we actually see for the first time: a chain-link-fenced, nondescript, off-white house on a dull average street in a dismally dull suburb - treeless, narrow, uninspiring. They tell all who ask that they're on their way to Australia....
Over the final thirty minutes, however, you can find out exactly what they do and where they go - in exquisite, harrowing detail.
Recommended for adults only. Eight out of ten.
December 30, 2019.
Cleanliness is next to godliness, as the saying goes. Beginning in 1987, with the opening moving scene, we are inside a car inside a carwash, at a snail's pace: water, soap, brushes all intermingled with the interminable machine noise drowning any attempt at conversation between the occupants: the Schober family, Anna (Birgtit Doll), Georg (Dieter Berner) and Evi (Leni Tanzer), as we learn.
And so, as the car - gleaming clean, refreshed, sparkling - finally exits, it passes a billboard advertising Australia, the seventh continent, as a welcoming place to live in, and displays perhaps a typical beach scene in that country. Only ... it isn't typical at all: in fact, it's a fantasy beach, a dream beach that cannot possibly exist. Careful examination of that photo will tell you why....
So Australia is a symbol used by Haneke as a counterpoint to the mundane daily existence and routine of the Schober family: a dream country to which they wish to emigrate, or so it seems. The Schober nuclear family is middle class, with an average suburban residence, an average Ford for commuting, in an average part of any Austrian city; Evi is in school, and both parents are suitably employed. The trio is having a moderately "good life", despite some issues with Evi's school and the parents' work, if not yet la dolce vita in another country.
For most of this story, we stay with the family at home, at work, at shopping, at relatives, with others, at doctors etc., etc.; and, for much of that time, seeing only a face, or hand, or back, or feet - almost never a full figure, even in bed when the parents have sex - tiredly, listlessly, dutifully. Dialogue is sparse, to say the least. Cinematic minimalism at its best - or worst, depending upon your point of view; and there is no music soundtrack.
Until, one day in 1989, Georg and Anna resign from their jobs and withdraw all their cash; he sells the car, goes shopping for a variety of hardware and tools, and has a great mass of food delivered to their address. Which, incidentally, we actually see for the first time: a chain-link-fenced, nondescript, off-white house on a dull average street in a dismally dull suburb - treeless, narrow, uninspiring. They tell all who ask that they're on their way to Australia....
Over the final thirty minutes, however, you can find out exactly what they do and where they go - in exquisite, harrowing detail.
Recommended for adults only. Eight out of ten.
December 30, 2019.