Mainstream cinema raises questions only to immediately provide an answer to them, so they can send the spectator home reassured. If we actually had those answers, then society would appear very different from what it is.
Michael HanekeRead
It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass.
Interpretation
Art's role is to provoke thought and inquiry rather than to deliver clear-cut solutions.
This quote emphasizes the idea that the primary function of art is to stimulate thought and discussion rather than to provide definitive answers to complex questions. The artist, in this case Michael Haneke, suggests that by encouraging contemplation and inquiry, art can provoke deeper understanding and awareness in its audience, affirming the notion that not all matters can or should be simplified into straightforward conclusions.
In practice
During a discussion on the impact of modern art, one might reference this quote to illustrate the purpose of artistic expression.
Mainstream cinema raises questions only to immediately provide an answer to them, so they can send the spectator home reassured. If we actually had those answers, then society would appear very different from what it is.
All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
An artist is someone who should raise questions rather than give answers. I have no message.
At its best, film should be like a ski jump. It should give the viewer the option of taking flight, while the act of jumping is left up to him.
When I first envisioned 'Funny Games' in the mid-1990s, it was my intention to have an American audience watch the movie. It is a reaction to a certain American cinema, its violence, its naivety, the way American cinema toys with human beings. In many American films, violence is made consumable.
I make my films because I'm affected by a situation, by something that makes me want to reflect on it, that lends itself to an artistic reflection. I always aim to look directly at what I'm dealing with. I think it's a task of dramatic art to confront us with things that in the entertainment industry are usually swept under the rug.
In improvisation, there are no mistakes.
The really magical things are the ones that happen right in front of you. A lot of the time you keep looking for beauty, but it is already there. And if you look with a bit more intention, you see it.
In a photograph a personβs eyes tell much, sometimes they tell all.
We do not go to the theatre like our ancestors, to escape from the pressure of reality, so much as to confirm our experience of it.
When people say 'What are underground comics?' I think the best way you can define them is just the absolute freedom involved... we didn't have anyone standing over us.
An artist's concern is to capture beauty wherever he finds it.
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