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Haneke s articulate critique of the isolating effects of western society, the media and television in particular, is composed of an intricate series of unrelated scenes, culminating in an apparently motiveless act of violence. Perfectly paced and executed, Haneke s skilful weaving of these tableaux into a coherent and compelling whole is mesmerising and strangely beautiful.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Michael Haneke does not make 'easy' films. '71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance', like the majority of his oeuvre, is uncomfortable, often emotionally draining and requires the viewer to engage and think through what they are seeing; instead of passively watching it. It is not a 'fun' film in any traditional sense of the world, but it is spellbinding, startling, original and hugely powerful. Haneke's 71 fragments are glimpses of lives, from a penniless Romanian orphan who has migrated to Vienna illegally, a troubled student, and a married couple watching the health of their daughter slowly drain away. This is a film which gives a harsh, yet compelling and realistic view of the psychological damage the modern world has on people. Unemotional newsreaders play out on monitors, with footage of real events - from the Northern Irish 'troubles', to the 'ethnic cleansing' of the Balkans, the news of the time Haneke's film was shot, in 1993/94. This footage comes between staged news footage (meant to look authentic), of those in the film, like the Romanian orphan, who is troubled, eloquent and frighteningly adult. He has seen his friends die, he has seen young girls go "on the game" as he puts it, and he is shown alone in a metropolis (in one of the non-news footage or staged news footage vignettes, which make up about 2/3 of the film), where he is laughed at by a passing driver, for eating an apple from a rubbish bin. This is incredibly moving and honest filmmaking, but even as a seasoned cynic, I found it hard to stomach.
I can't really find fault with '71 Fragments...', though that's not to say it's for everyone. The film is slow-paced, minimalist, and even for seasoned buffs of world cinema, sometimes hard to follow; due to the briefness of most of the 'fragments', and the multitude of characters. It is also not a film for the perennial optimist. The television buzzes in the home of a financially poor old man, who looks sadly on at the news around him, as his daughter fobs him off. And perhaps, despite all the superb minimalist camerawork, excellent plotting, and dialogue, this is the most startling and impressive thing about Haneke's film. He refuses to shy away from the miserable depths of human psychology, bringing them together fantastically for a chilling and poignant finale, which will live long in the memory. For anyone looking for a deep, moving and unblikingly truthful evocation of the human condition in the modern world, I couldn't recommend Haneke's '71 Fragments...' highly enough.
I can't really find fault with '71 Fragments...', though that's not to say it's for everyone. The film is slow-paced, minimalist, and even for seasoned buffs of world cinema, sometimes hard to follow; due to the briefness of most of the 'fragments', and the multitude of characters. It is also not a film for the perennial optimist. The television buzzes in the home of a financially poor old man, who looks sadly on at the news around him, as his daughter fobs him off. And perhaps, despite all the superb minimalist camerawork, excellent plotting, and dialogue, this is the most startling and impressive thing about Haneke's film. He refuses to shy away from the miserable depths of human psychology, bringing them together fantastically for a chilling and poignant finale, which will live long in the memory. For anyone looking for a deep, moving and unblikingly truthful evocation of the human condition in the modern world, I couldn't recommend Haneke's '71 Fragments...' highly enough.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I felt as if this kaleidoscopic mosaic of modern (1994) Austria felt a bit watered down, diluted, by how many different strands to the story there were. Working my way chronologically through director Michael Haneke's 10 disc Anthology (71 Fragments is the third), the previous two, Seventh Continent and Benny's Video, each deal with one story only.
However, as it buzzed along, with Austrian TV News giving us the hottest headlines of the day, all horrible and violent stories from places like Kosovo and Belfast, Hanakeke's filmed ones similarly blurred into one long stream of mostly mundane and ordinary snippets of stories about everyday people. The TV snippets were short and sensational, Haneke's mostly slow and unsensational.
The psychology of it all is perplexing and no doubt Haneke has planned and crafted his film meticulously for maximum effect and, frankly, a bit beyond me. That said, he makes various statements about society as a whole, from a young Romanian boy escaping his country's troubles and ending up on Vienna's subway platforms, homeless, to a young Austrian child being adopted from a modern day orphanage and going to live with wealthy, middle class parents. The Romanian boy is arrested and we see him interviewed by police on TV, who tells of his atrocities and what he has run away from, whilst the adopted girl doesn't like the coat that her new parents have bought for her.
There are other little stories going on, inter-linking in some way, many involving a bank, where a fatal shooting will later occur. One of the tellers serves her father withdrawing his weekly pension and in order to hurry him along, she promises to phone him later. Much later on in the film, the old man has phoned her, she complains that he's running up his bill too high and then fobs him off.
The shooting, by a pent-up, disgruntled 19 y.o. student is a cold, extremely sobering climax to all this buzz. We have seen him, anonymously doing several different activities throughout this film. We don't know who he is or what he will do. The News still buzzes on the TV; this shooting being just another 'breaking news' story. Haneke reinforces this by having a couple of the stories from much earlier repeated, which we know to be an error in continuity. Is it the TV News's or Haneke's doing? It's unsettling either way. Which is how Haneke likes it and wants to make us feel about what he wants to say.
However, as it buzzed along, with Austrian TV News giving us the hottest headlines of the day, all horrible and violent stories from places like Kosovo and Belfast, Hanakeke's filmed ones similarly blurred into one long stream of mostly mundane and ordinary snippets of stories about everyday people. The TV snippets were short and sensational, Haneke's mostly slow and unsensational.
The psychology of it all is perplexing and no doubt Haneke has planned and crafted his film meticulously for maximum effect and, frankly, a bit beyond me. That said, he makes various statements about society as a whole, from a young Romanian boy escaping his country's troubles and ending up on Vienna's subway platforms, homeless, to a young Austrian child being adopted from a modern day orphanage and going to live with wealthy, middle class parents. The Romanian boy is arrested and we see him interviewed by police on TV, who tells of his atrocities and what he has run away from, whilst the adopted girl doesn't like the coat that her new parents have bought for her.
There are other little stories going on, inter-linking in some way, many involving a bank, where a fatal shooting will later occur. One of the tellers serves her father withdrawing his weekly pension and in order to hurry him along, she promises to phone him later. Much later on in the film, the old man has phoned her, she complains that he's running up his bill too high and then fobs him off.
The shooting, by a pent-up, disgruntled 19 y.o. student is a cold, extremely sobering climax to all this buzz. We have seen him, anonymously doing several different activities throughout this film. We don't know who he is or what he will do. The News still buzzes on the TV; this shooting being just another 'breaking news' story. Haneke reinforces this by having a couple of the stories from much earlier repeated, which we know to be an error in continuity. Is it the TV News's or Haneke's doing? It's unsettling either way. Which is how Haneke likes it and wants to make us feel about what he wants to say.
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