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
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.
In practice
In a film discussion group, one might reference this quote to highlight the importance of deeper storytelling.
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.
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.
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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.
When you're a writer, the question people always ask you is, "Where do you get your ideas?" Writers hate this question. It's like asking Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, "Where do you get your leeches?" You don't get ideas. Ideas get you.
Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn't have very strong personal resonance.
I've been very fortunateit's just been an amazing piece of luck. I haven't had to suffer for my art but I've suffered enough inside to hopefully be called an artist.
Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.
I don't own any of my own paintings because a Picasso original costs several thousand dollars and that's a luxury I cannot afford.
To see the butcher slap the steak before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable too - it really was - to see him cut it off so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite.
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