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

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+ Best Home Invasion Thriller of the Year

Naomi Watts has been in better shape (but also worse, in a few cases) than on this confrontational, unsettling poster for Michael Haneke's Funny Games

A harmonic married couple are sought out in their idyllic summerhouse by two young men, who torment them and their young son as a part of their 'funny games'.

Funny Games is written and directed by great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (Hidden/Caché (2005)) and is a shot-by-shot remake of his impactful original Funny Games (1997), which was made in Austria.
This US replication of the unforgettable work has only altered very little from the scenario. The original film for some reason has a stronger impact, I find, because the couple are German-speaking, and the language comes out a bit quicker and more naturally. That aside the new Funny Games is a successful remake, and it is a testament to Haneke's almost insane artistic consequence that he recreates his most creep-out unpleasant film this meticulously.
Funny Games gives us violence-desensitized audiences a sobering slap across the face. The new ensemble of actors all perform well; Naomi Watts (Chuck (2016)) again shows her talent for portraying awfully afflicted females (as seen also in great film such as Mulholland Dr. (1999), 21 Grams (2003) and The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012).)

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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]
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller 

Watch a trailer for the film with Spanish subtitles here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 7.9 mil. $ 
= Huge flop (returned 0.52 times its cost)
[Funny Games premiered 20 October (London Film Festival, UK) and runs 111 minutes. Haneke has said that he wanted to make the original film in the US, but was not practically able to at the time. Instead the set from the 1997 film was meticulously recreated for the new film. Shooting took place in New York in and around September 2006. The film opened #21 to a 544k $ first weekend in 286 theaters in North America, where it added two more cinemas in its 2nd week but only lessened in rank, grossing 1.2 mil. $ (15.2 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Italy with 2.1 mil. $ (26.6 %); North America was the 2nd biggest, and France was the 3rd biggest with 1 mil. $ (12.7 %). Haneke returned with The White Ribbon/Das Weiße Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009). Watts returned in The International (2009), Tim Roth (The Con Is On (2018)) in Virgin Territory (2007), and Michael Pitt (Criminal Activities (2015)) in 4 video, TV and a bit part credits before he reclaimed the major screen again in Seven Psychopaths (2012). Funny Games is rotten at 51 % with a 5.64/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Funny Games?

Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti (2008) - Sorrentino's complex, performance-like political biopic

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+ Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Toni Servillo

The red of the Italian flag runs out like blood on the poster for Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo

QUICK REVIEW:


Giulio Andreotti is a migraine-plagued top politician and seven-time prime minister of Italy, who in the 1990s gets accused of having ties to the mob.

Toni Servillo (The Consequences of Love/Le Conseguenze dell'Amore (2004)) is masked unrecognizably in Oscar-nominated makeup as the enigmatic and at times comical real-life figure Andreotti, the title 'Divo' [the divine], and is convincing in the part. Il Divo is the 4th theatrical feature of Neapolitan master filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013)), who wrote and directed it.
Sorrentino stages Servillo in a film, which feels more like a performance or perhaps rather a series of performances than a unified story. Il Divo refuses to serve us a conventional biopic narrative, and as a non-Italian, one will inevitably lose track of a lot of the story, also because Sorrentino, especially in the beginning, flings names and other information at us at machine gun pace. The challenging material can make Il Divo seem long, but its very lively camera, by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi (Youth (2015)), eclectic music, by Teho Teardo (The Right Thing/La Cosa Giusta (2009)) and many interesting faces make this difficult film highly inviting and worthwhile regardless.

Related posts:

Paolo Sorrentino: The day after ... The Oscars 2014
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013) or, Jep Gambardelli's Rome
This Must Be the Place (2011) - Sorrentino's Nazi-hunting stoner cracker

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Caiman/Il Caimano (2006) - Moretti's unfunny political comedy - strictly for Italians (actor)   

Watch the US trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 6.7 mil. $
Box office: 11.2 mil. $
= Big flop
[Il Divo was released May 23 (Cannes) and runs 110 minutes. The initial cut of the film was 145 minutes long. The real Andreotti walked out of a screening of the film, saying that it was "too much" and added that in the end he would be judged on his record. The film opened #61 in 2 theaters to a 13k $ opening weekend and peaked in 8 theaters in North America, where it grossed a paltry 0.2 mil. $ (1.8 % of the total gross). Its 3 biggest markets were its native Italy with 8.5 mil. $ (75.9 %), France with 0.9 mil. $ (8%) and the UK with 0.5 mil. $ (4.5 %). Il Divo won the Jury Prize in Cannes and was Oscar-nominated for Best Makeup, which it lost to Star Trek. It was also nominated for 4 European Film Awards and 16 David di Donatello Awards (Italy's Oscar), of which it won 7. Il Divo is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Il Divo?