Ouroboros1 :: Cinema, 1 - Funny Games [1997]
We’ll get to the core, but first we need to consider the outer structure of this curious set of nested Russian dolls ++ There is a moment early on where a small pairing knife falls onto the deck of the family boat ++ The depiction is just conspicuous enough to raise an eye-brow to anyone familiar with Chekov’s gun ++ It proves the first of many well placed traps ++ Oliver Speck notes of a critic one remarking that Funny Games is a Hostel [2005] for the NPR set.1 He took this as a pejorative, or at least a misunderstanding of Haneke’s aim. What is unmistakable is the emotional violence inflicted onto the viewer.
Less obvious is the intent, but it’s there for those of us who want to find it.
Speck, Oliver. Funny Frames: The Filmic Concepts of Michael Haneke. New York: Continuum, 2010. (p 86)