michael haneke

Lunch is Lost, Ticket Cost Recouped After Messy ‘Funny Games’ Fallout

3:34AM Defamer Hollywood | While we’re mildly impressed by the $1 million take in limited release for the bourgeoisie torture-snuff opus Funny Games (especially considering the overwhelmingly negative reviews), no story speaks higher of director Michael Haneke’s success than that of one Kate Johnson, who recently gave new meaning to “box-office gross” following her trip to the movies: Finally when it was over and my “friend” looked like a deer in the headlights — I was physically sick. I demanded my money back from the box office only to have the girl laugh at me — at first. I threw up on the floor right in front of her — and it splattered. More »

‘Funny Games’: The Ultimate Bourgeois Nightmare Or Just Art House Torture Porn?

9:00AM Mark Graham | For those of us out there who are active moviegoers, the weekend of March 14 has been circled on our calendars for some time. While 2008 has seen a handful of worthwhile releases hit the cineplex (think Be Kind Rewind, think Charlie Bartlett), the indie-inclined viewer has had painfully few movie choices from which to choose from so far this year. However, all that changes this weekend when Neil Marshall’s Doomsday, David Gordon Green’s Snow Angels and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games make their way to a theatre near you. While all three will must sees (at least in my book), one of these flicks is drawing significant levels of pre-release controversy (if not great reviews). Specifically, Haneke’s Americanised remake of his own 1997 pic Funny Games is being labelled by notoriously cranky film blogger Jeffrey Wells as being “the ugliest and most repulsive violent melodrama I’ve ever seen (including the thoroughly disgusting I Spit On Your Grave)” and, simultaneously, “a smart and nervy critique of sexy-violent movies … and one of the ballsiest movies ever released by Warner Bros. in its 90 year history.” Um, sign us up! More »