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
Films that are entertainments give simple answers but I think that's ultimately more cynical, as it denies the viewer room to think. If there are more answers at the end, then surely it is a richer experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that films providing complex narratives are more enriching than those that offer simplistic resolutions.
Michael Haneke implies that films that merely entertain by providing easy answers are ultimately less fulfilling. He believes that when films provoke thought and offer multiple perspectives, they create a deeper and more meaningful experience for viewers, allowing them to engage intellectually and emotionally with the material presented.
Themes
FilmsEntertainmentThoughtExperienceAnswers
In practice
Example use cases
In a film discussion group, one might reference this quote to highlight the importance of deeper storytelling.
More from Michael Haneke
All quotes →All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
Michael HanekeRead
An artist is someone who should raise questions rather than give answers. I have no message.
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.
Michael HanekeRead
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.
Michael HanekeRead
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.
Michael HanekeRead
Similar quotes
I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men; and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.
W. Eugene SmithRead
In my view, art and the approach to life through art, using it as a vehicle for education and even for doing science is so vital that it is part of a great new revolution that is taking place. I believe we are entering a whole new epoch.
Jonas SalkRead
I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it.
NasRead
How do you project a character if you don't have a sense of where she is from? I've always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, go to the marketplaces.
Cicely TysonRead
The sort of man who admires Italian art while despising Italian religion is a tourist and a cad.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.
Michael KeatonRead