My Favorite Director

Michael Haneke 

"My films are intended as polemical statements against the American 'barrel down' cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance in place of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus."

-- From "Film as catharsis".

Michael Haneke was born in Germany but raised in Austria. He made his director debut in television at the age of 32. His first feature film, THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, came out in 1989.
Words often used to describe his films are; bleak, bold and disturbing. He mostly deals with problems and break downs of modern society. Media is a popular theme in his films along with class relations and, of course, violence.


Below is a list of Haneke's films ranked from my favorite to not favorite. Although I find each of them to be amazing works of art and worth watching, some of them I have a higher appreciation for. The top 5 all impressed me greatly and have stayed with me the longest. 
Haneke made his film FUNNY GAMES twice, the first time in Austria and then again in the United States. I ranked them together because they are very similar and the acting in both is exceptional. I suppose I would suggest the original to a person trying to choose between the two, although the American version is in English, which is preferable to some people I suppose, and it is still as powerful. 
 The last four either made less of an impression, or in the case of BENNY'S VIDEO, disturbed me enough that I will find it hard to ever watch again. 





1.The Piano Teacher
2.The Seventh Continent
3.Funny Games (1997&2008)
4. The White Ribbon 
5. Cache
6. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
7. Benny's Video
8. Time of the Wolf
9. Code Unknown

Code Unknown

The Piano Teacher

Funny Games 1997

Cache

The Seventh Continent

Time of the Wolf

The White Ribbon