Funny Games

The positive star rating above comes with a great big honking caveat: this is not remotely a movie for anybody who's looking to be entertained. In fact, a streak of cinematic masochism is a necessary prerequisite, because the entire point of this Austrian art film, directed by celebrated provocateur Michael Haneke, is to make you, the viewer, feel like an immoral, bloodthirsty scumbag. The story is nauseatingly simple: two polite young men, dressed in tennis whites, invade the home of a nice suburban family and proceed to torture and murder them, one by one. "And?" you're wondering. But there is no "and." Haneke's object is to make you think about your complicity in the proliferation of images that degrade your fellow human beings, and to that end he's created a hideously post-modern movie in which there is no narrative payoff to justify the violence that takes place, and in which the killers repeatedly address the camera and remind you that the pain you're witnessing is occurring solely for your personal diversion. One imagines Haneke applauding anybody with the good sense to get up and turn the horror off, and condemning those (like myself) who sit through it to the extremely bitter end. I respect Funny Games, and think it a valuable and important work of art, but I wouldn't sit through the thing again for a sum with fewer than three figures. Very cautiously recommended. (M. D'Angelo) [DVD Review—May 2, 2006—Kino, 104 min., in German & French w/English subtitles, not rated, $29.95—Making its second appearance on DVD, 1997's Funny Games features a so-so transfer with DVD extras including a 19-minute interview with writer-director Michael Haneke, a text filmography for Haneke, and trailers. Bottom line: a small but solid extras package for a disturbing but powerful film.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—May 21, 2019—Criterion, 109 min., in German w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1997’s Funny Games features a great transfer with a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include a press conference from the 1997 Cannes Film Festival (44 min.), interviews with film historian Alexander Horwath (28 min.), director Michael Haneke (25 min.), and costar Arno Frisch (18 min.), and an essay by critic Bilge Ebiri. Bottom line: Haneke’s deeply disturbing, controversial film makes its Blu-ray debut in a fine Criterion edition.]