Defining Favourites: Funny Games (1997)

You're on their side, aren't you? Who are you betting on?

Photo: Janus Films

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another - akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Michael Haneke
Screenplay by Michael Haneke
Produced by Veit Heiduschka
Starring Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, Stefan Clapczynski
Premiere Date: May 14, 1997
Running Time: 109 minutes

In a very morbid fashion, the title Funny Games might feel the most appropriate as for Michael Haneke’s masterpiece. It’s an appropriate title because it might just speak to how we ultimately view the subject of violence in the media which we consume, for as the viewers, it all might just be part of a very cruel joke. We’re coming into the movie expecting a home invasion thriller because that’s exactly what Michael Haneke is giving us on paper – but the rug gets pulled from under our feet so quickly. By that point, Funny Games doesn’t ever feel like a movie all about whether or not the victimized people will survive a horror movie scenario, instead we’re being asked as the audience members what do we want to take out from watching violent media so regularly.

When we think about how we approach a scenario like this, we’re always going to root for who we recognize as the “good guys” of any movie survive despite immense pain. Yet the fact that we’re wanting to satiate our taste for violence is where the film’s two villains, Peter and Paul, serve their purpose. As Paul sometimes breaks the fourth wall in order to communicate with the viewers of Funny Games in order to test them regarding how much more can they take, Haneke isn’t just implicating the audience as much as he’s also challenging the audiences to realize where violence in any scenario would ultimately go. It’s all very cyclical, which may only make Haneke’s thesis much stronger as people react so strongly to the film supposedly for challenging their own enjoyment of horror movies.