The Joke’s On You

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the newsletter that loves movies more than Nic Cage loves taking a paycheck.

This is what we’ve got for today 👇️

• Tom kicks off our 24 Hour Week!

• We Have a new #1 at the worldwide box office.

• All the latest news and notes from this weekend.

Let’s get rolling…

This week we want to talk to you about a very simple concept.

The 24hr movie.

It’’s a movie that takes place in a single 24hr period, a concept that has lead to some of the most entertaining and beloved films in history, and here are just a few in that grand tradition.

Funny Games (1997)

Written by Tom Fortner

Michael Haneke might be a new name to some of you, so if you haven’t heard of him you’ve got to check him out.

For those of you who are aware of him, you know that no matter which Haneke film we discuss, it’s going to be disturbing.

And with that upbeat intro, let’s begin!

Polite Violence

Funny Games sets the home invasion genre at its most gruesome height.

It does this not with gore or violence, but with implications, performances, and themes.

That’s not to say this isn’t a violent film, it’s actually brutal, but the brutality comes in the set up. It’s like picking up a stuffed wolf at a FAO Schwarz store only to have it bite you. Not only is it unexpected, it just doesn’t make any sense.

The performances of the two home invaders are at the core of this cruel energy. Both dressed in all white attire with gloves to match, the leader, Paul (Arno Frisch), is incredibly polite, as is his dumber, chubbier sidekick, Peter (Frank Giering).

“Sorry I hurt you,” says Peter apologetically after he hits the father (Ulrich Mühe) in the knee with a golf club, “But you forced me to, you have to admit that.”

The invaded family is a powerhouse of performance as well. In one tense 10-minute-long fixed take, the mother (Susanne Lothar) holds the father in her arms has he gives the most heart wrenching cry I’ve ever heard. The little boy (Stefan Clapczynski), too, has time to shine in a solo scene where he attempts an escape.

The Joke’s On You

The purpose of Funny Games is a meditation on how film manipulates the viewer.

That’s right, the film is manipulating you and lets you know it too.

Haneke used the thriller genre because it “lends itself perfectly to showing the audience how easily they’re manipulated,” he said.

The film tricks its audience by making the characters in the story just clichés. However, the story is told in such a precise way that we as the viewers go along with it instead of saying: “I’ve seen this before, I know what happens.”

The two sets of actors, the family and the villains, are in two separate movies, explains Haneke, “a drama” and “a farce”, respectively. Neither set enters into the others’ reality. The villains are having fun inflicting pain while the family is suffering.

 This next part includes what I consider spoilers for the film (basically, the film would have more of an impact if you don’t know this going in), but I think are necessary to be mentioned. So, skip to the end or read on 

The next step was the 4^th wall breaks. Haneke drew from an experience he had watching Tom Jones, where the character interacts with the audience. He says he became aware of his role in the film and how it was manipulating his emotions.

The breaks made the audience aware of the trickery, but then they were caught back up in the suspense of the story. In a way, we are called out for viewing the family’s suffering, then casually drawn back into it because we just can’t look away.

“I can tear people away from the story, but five minutes later they’re at my mercy again,” Haneke once gloated.

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