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.
I don't want people to look at my menu and see just the ingredients. I want to take them on a journey.
Whether one show one's self a man of genius in science or compose a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, the deed, is living and can live on.
When I go to the cinema, I'm often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I'm working on a subject, I'm always looking for the element of surprise.
I think it's important to earn your fan base and not just try to immediately advance to the top. If you ride to the top quickly, you're liable to fall as quickly. Take your time. It's a long journey ahead of you as an artist. There's nowhere that you're supposed to be other than right now living inside of your art.
My films, I've tried to put a message into them. It's not about the gore; it's not about the horror element that are in them. It's more about the message, for me. That's what it is, and I'm using this platform to be able to show my feelings of what I think.
When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures. Nobody does. Each photograph that works is a revelation to its supposed creator.
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