Happy End (2017) - A worthy full stop for Haneke's dark oeuvre

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A recording of a loading site for boats make up this mysterious, curiosity-sparking poster for Michael Haneke's Happy End

A young girl moves in with her father and his big family, after her mother has been poisoned. 

 

Happy End is written and directed by great German-born Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)).

Haneke is back in sober, unsentimental top shape here with this potent drama, which is a continuation of the story of the old man and his daughter who we met in his Amour (2012).

Fantine Harduin (Fanny's Journey/Le Voyage de Fanny (2016)) is brilliant and disturbing as the girl; Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z (1969)) is just as inimitable as the suicidal grandfather. 

The ending loses a bit of the subtlety that otherwise esteems the film: The party is too white, and the racism that is showcased was already outlined in the masterly dog bite scene. - But this cannot overshadow that Happy End is a sublime, though-provoking, relevant film and a very handsome (possible) end for the European master's long career.

 

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: 2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Amour (2012) - Tender love, unseizing death in Haneke's pictures
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller   

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003) - Apocalyptic meanderings by Haneke 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 12,034,009 €, approximately 13.3 mil. $

Box office: 2.6 mil. $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.19 times its cost)

[Happy End premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 107 minutes At least 21 companies and support bodies cooperated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from July - August 2016 in France and in London, UK. The film opened #35 to a 23k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it never attained a higher position although it widened to 20 theaters, grossing 301k $ (11.6 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 563k $ (21.7 %). 2nd biggest was Netherlands with 337k $ (13 %), and North America was the 3rd biggest. The film lost the Palme d'Or to The Square and was also nominated for 2 European Film awards, among other honors. Haneke seems to have retired after the release of the film. Isabelle Huppert (Mama Weed/La Daronne (2020)) returned in Mrs. Hyde/Madame Hyde (2017); Trintignant returned in The Best Years of a Life/Les Plus Belles Années d'une Vie (2019); and Mathieu Kassovitz (La Haine (1995)) in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). Happy End is fresh at 70 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Happy End?

And God Created Woman/Et Dieu... Créa la Femme (1956) - And she's still a mystery!

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Warm colors encased in cool blue and the orgiastic face of a painted version of Brigitte Bardot defines this original French poster for Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman

Juliette is a wild young woman, who doesn't waste her time in terms of taking partners. But she can only avoid getting sent back to a restrictive boarding school by marrying. And so that's what she does, although everyone advises the groom against the marriage.

 

And God Created Woman is written by co-writer/producer Raoul Lévy (Babette Goes to War/Babette s'en Va-t-en Guerre (1959)) and debuting co-writer/director Roger Vadim (Barbarella (1968))

The film is a look inside the life of a tempestuous, sexually active woman, and it serves as a salute to women in general, despite her rebellious nature. Brigitte Bardot (Babette Goes to War (1959)) in her fruitful figure is lovely. And God Created Woman also has a French movie magic about it that was around sometimes in its period. The romance, sexuality and the mystery in And God Created Woman is above all vivid.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 300k $

Box office: 4 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Mega-hit (returned 13.3 times its cost in North America alone)

[And God Created Woman was released 28 November (France) and runs 95 minutes. Vadim was inspired by a crime story of a trial against a woman who had had an affair with three brothers and killed one of them. Levy secured finance from Colombia Pictures, provided that Curt Jurgens (Nutty, Naughty Chateau/Château en Suède (1963)) be cast. Shooting took place in France from May - July 1956. The film sold impressive 3.9 mil. admissions in France; it was one of the ten biggest hits in the UK; and in the US it became the highest-grossing foreign release ever at the time with a 4 mil. $ gross. It was screened in censored versions in the US, where it was wildly controversial. Vadim returned with No Sun in Venice/Sait-on Jamais... (1957). Bardot returned in La Parisienne (1957); Curd Jurgens in The House of Intrigue/Londra Chiama Polo Nord (1956); Jean-Louis Trintignant (Les Passagers (1977)) in Club de Femmes (1956). And God Created Woman is fresh at 75 % with a 6.58/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of And God Created Woman?

Amour (2012) - Tender love, unstoppable death in Haneke's pictures

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+ Best French Movie of the Year

An almost painfully intimate moment between the film's central aging couple is used on this poster for Michael Haneke's Amour

An old married, French couple. One day, the woman loses the ability to move in her one side. Her health rapidly deteriorates, while her husband cares for her until the last breath.

 
Amour is written and directed by great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)). Amour is French for 'love'.

Emmanuelle Riva's (Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) performance as the ailing old woman, who loses control of her faculties, is taboo-breaking and incredible, and the intimacy and realism of the loving tragedy and the couple's relation is infectious in a surreptitious manner, seeming to crawl under your skin without you noticing. - Or, more accurately, you notice its doing so by the intense unpleasantness that you experience from being put expertly in their shoes, a weight that is making some term the film unbearable.
The very intense journey towards inevitable death in Amour is long-winded and truly awful to be on, and the love between the two so beautiful that the film is very nearly unbearable, - which could be called a trademark for all of Haneke's films. This one ranks among his finest.

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8.9 mil. $
Box office: 29.6 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.32 times its cost)

[Amour premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 127 minutes. Haneke went through a writer's block during his making the screenplay, which he wrote specifically with Jean-Louis Trintignant (L'Été Prochain (1985)). Trintignant broke his prior 14 years of retirement to appear in the film. It was mostly inspired by the suicide of Haneke's own rheumatism-plagued 90 year-old aunt. Shooting took place from February - April 2011 in France, including Paris. The film opened #37 to a 68k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 333 theaters (different weeks), grossing 6.7 mil. $ (22.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 4.2 mil. $ (14.2 %) and the Netherlands with 2.2 mil. $ (7.4 %). The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 1, for Best Foreign Language Film. It lost Best Picture to Argo, Actress (Riva) to Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Director to Ang Lee for Life of Pi and Original Screenplay to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. It also won a Golden Globe, 2/4 BAFTA nominations, the Palme d'Or in Cannes, 5/10 César award nominations, a David di Donatello award, 4/6 European Film award nominations, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Haneke returned with Così fan Tutte (2013, TV movie) and theatrically with Happy End (2017). Riva returned in A Greek Type of Problem/Tu Honoreras ta Mère et ta Mère (2012); Trintignant in Happy End (2017). Amour is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 
What do you think of Amour?