NOT SO FUNNY GAME

Finally saw Michael Haneke’s 1997 film Funny Games (later re-made by Haneke in 2007 for an American audience) without having any idea of what to expect just a keen sensation that this film would continue my admiration of his work, but due to the opening sequence and its clear juxtaposition of music compositions I was not so sure. The establishing scene follows a Four-wheel drive along a tranquil countryside road; the shot focuses on following the car as we learn the passengers are a well to do bourgeois family, who enjoy listening to opera. Until, wait for it… there is a sharp contrast with the music as the sequence continues to display the family in their diegetic world enjoying the opera. The audience however is given something different as music has been replaced by a disruptive heavy metal band Bonehead, creating a forced tension.

This overt contrast reminded me of another 1997 film Gummo directed by Harmony Korine which also uses an obtrusive metal score to elevate the violence prevalent in the film. It seemed an obvious representation of good versus evil, pairing the opera with ‘good’ and the violent assault of the Bonehead  track with ‘evil’ a clear indication of what was to come. If it was not already clear Funny Games appears in large flashing red font, it becomes quite comprehensible that Haneke has let us in on his joke.

The narrative continues to disrupt stereotypes by using a pair of polite clean cut men as the antagonists in a series of violent acts and meaningless torture. As the pair continues to play ‘funny games’ with the bourgeois family the meaningless violence and overall lack of character development had little effect on me. This made it hard to empathise with the victims at a pivotal conflict in which the story’s final outcome was determined. A joke that deliberately breaks the diegesis of the narrative (which happens throughout) by the main perpetrator, Paul (Arno Frisch), as he uses a remote control to rewind the film back from what could have been a happy ending.

In 1997, Funny Games may have been and influential experiment as it shook up many conventions of contemporary cinema and pushed viewers with minimal character development and implicate violence. Although I have seen this for the first time many years after its release, the experiment became an obvious juxtaposition of stereotypes with the terrorization of a bourgeois family and possibly the audience themselves, which was in the end a not so funny game.