More Amour!

Photo of 2013?

I already discussed Michael Haneke's Amour with David Ehrlich back at the New York Film Festival, but was honored to join the gang of The Film Stage Podcast to go for a second round on the film. We begin the discussion with a look at the themes of Michael Haneke (manipulation, intrusion, surveillance, and his umm Twitter account) and then dive into the complicated Oscar-nom'd film. It's a fun and worth discussion of your time, so take a listen.

NYFF: Like Someone In A Panic Attack

While the above frame might suggest something creepy, there is nothing plot wise unsettling in the latest from Abbas Kiarostami, a Tokyo-set drama entitled Like Someone In Love. Since I've praised Certified Copy to the high heavens, I didn't like this as much, but found my visceral reaction to it (shaking, convulsing) to be one of the most unique reactions I've had in a movie all year.

Anyways, it's one of four movies discussed in this week's Cinephiliacs, along with Michael Haneke's Amour, Leos Carax's Holy Motors, and Olivier Assayas's Something in the Air. And I'm glad to take David Ehrlich from the Criterion Corner along for the ride to discuss them. Listen to that here.

Additionally, I wrote a piece for Criticwire discussing further thoughts on the Kiarostami film as well as Downpour, one of the Masterworks films and an early landmark piece of Iranian cinema from a director named Bahram Beyza’i. Beyza'i is one of those directors who everyone in Tehran knows really well, mainly for his theater work, but now I can't wait to see more of his films. Anyways, read that piece here.

Michael: Pedophelia and Its Discontents

Michael

Written and Directed By: Markus Schleinzer

Starring: Michael Fuith and David Rauchenberger

Director of Photography: Gerard Kerkletz, Editor: Wolfgang Widerhofer, Production Designer: Katrin Huber, Original Music: Lorenz Dangel

Rated: Unrated, but the subject matter should be a clear warning.

            Meet Michael. He’s in his mid-30s. He sports a pair of glasses and is starting to bald. He works at an insurance company and he’s in line for a promotion. He visits his sisters, calls his mother. He a substantial though modest home and a car to match it. He also has a young child locked in his basement, and occasionally rapes him.

            And that’s the conceit of Michael, an early starter for the most pointless film of the year in the art house spectrum. The film comes from the mind of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, who worked as a casting director for Michael Haneke. It’s easy to see the influence, but the limitations of someone who is not Michael Haneke. The camera is stiff and unflinching, though letting the imagination often creating the horrors that we truly fear. But it’s not as rigorous, and the subject matter of pedophilia is presented without anything of note, besides the point, “Evil is banal.”