Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesh, Burkhart Klaussner, Steffi Kühnert
Director: Michael Haneke

outstanding, 2010-09-03
Another example of a German artist attemting to come to terms with the the country's descent into barbarism. A very successful and illuminating film which I will watch again and probably again.

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesh, Burkhart Klaussner, Steffi Kühnert
Director: Michael Haneke

Hidden without the shock, 2010-04-01
I'm writing mainly to reassure those who loved The Piano Teacher and Cache (Hidden) but dread Haneke's trademark "shock shots". Here, Haneke gives us a similar feel, and a similar puzzler that will stay with you for days, without the shock treatment, making the viewing (while never comfortable) certainly less traumatic. The camera always shys away from the horror of what is going on, in the spirit of the vilage's attitude of "see no evil" though the evil is sometimes heard. The result is that while I count Cache among one of my top 10 Best Films, I could never watch it again. This, I could rewatch by choice.

Though some may be put off by the subtitles and lack of colour, the experience of watching the film was more immersive than most films I've seen recently and I think this owes much to flawless acting and a compassionate lens. Maybe a parallel could be found with Aronofski's "the Wrestler" with its documentary style and merciless actor performances, minus the barb-wire wielding maybe... To me, it really felt like living in that village for a couple of hours and experiencing the real lives, dreams, fears and betrayals of a society 100 years in the past, yet only a couple of generations from our own, without any understanding of emotional intelligence. These kids brought up our granparents and in some cases our own parents. A sobering thought I suppose.