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
There is just as much evil in all of us as there is good. We're all continuously guilty, even if we're not doing it intentionally to be evil. Here we are sitting in luxury hotels, living it up on the the backs of others in the third world. We all have a guilty conscience, but we do very little about it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human nature contains both good and evil, often leading to guilt from benefiting at others' expense.
This quote by Michael Haneke emphasizes the duality of human nature, suggesting that every individual harbors both good and evil within themselves. It highlights the moral complicity we often ignore in our comfortable lives, as we benefit from the exploitation of those who are less fortunate, leading to a collective guilt that is frequently overlooked or unaddressed.
Themes
GoodEvilGuiltHuman NatureComplicity
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a discussion on ethical consumerism during a seminar.
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
People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?
Kirk DouglasRead
People are more complicated than the masks they wear in society.
Robert GreeneRead
The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.
Thomas HobbesRead
To suggest things may be going on in our brains that we aren't fully conscious of, that we unknowingly make classist, sexist and racist presumptions... Well, there just aren't many comfortable ways to take that. And in the face of discomfort comes the mask of defence.
Michaela CoelRead
Disbelief is more resistant than faith because it is sustained by the senses.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what's the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they're legislating democratically. The fact they do it by a majority vote has no moral significance whatsoever. Numerical might does not constitute right, no more than a lynch mob can justify its act because a majority participated.
H. L. RichardsonRead