An upper class family in Calais struggles with crisis. Although this film is of an obvious high caliber production, the lack of a coherent plot left it much to be desired. Either I'm not that smart or this movie made no sense. Given that this was a French film and perhaps much was lost in translation, the story was difficult, at best, to comprehend. There was no real beginning and no real end. It is not wrapped up in a nice little bow and for most films, it doesn't really have to be. However there was such a lack of explanation pertaining to the characters actions there was nothing for the viewer to grasp as reasoning. The best thing about this film was its ability to make yourself feel good about your own family. As crazy as you may think your family is, this one is crazier and not funny haha crazy. but perhaps it was meant to be crazy. Critics love this film, the general public probably does not. CritPop score of a 2 of 5 stars.

Otra vez Heneke y sus estilachos.

The critics were unfairly harsh on this characteristically opaque examination of family secrets, betrayal and the mysteries of life. It's not an easy film to follow, at least initially, Haneke doesn't hold your hand or spell everything out, but that approach pays growing dividends as the onion is slowly unpeeled. Marvellous acting from his ensemble cast, led by Matthieu Kassovitz, Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Fantastique.

Director Michael Haneke's latest film, his first in five years, is a chilly look at the moral failings of the bourgeoisie (or perhaps the upper class). Isabelle Huppert is the neurotic head of a construction company, hoping to bestow this role on her son, who she constantly berates for not being good enough (an accident at one of the sites heightens this tension). Mathieu Kassovitz is her brother, a surgeon, whose 13-year-old daughter by a first marriage (Fantine Harduin) is suddenly added to the family when her mother attempts suicide; the daughter immediately senses that her father is having an affair (and investigates this on his computer; her smartphone is always near at hand, recording things). Jean-Louis Trintignant (now in his 80s) plays the retired head of the family, alternatively forgetful and lucidly perceptive; he seeks escape in death after having euthanised his wife several years earlier during a chronic illness (a nod to Haneke's previous feature, Amour, 2012). There is no linear plot to reveal; we just see the family with its various players rolling through a series of events that show their obliviousness to the suffering of the world (made a bit more overt when the son invites a group of African refugees into a fancy engagement dinner). We do feel the tension from these events but it is enhanced by the characters' inability to communicate with each other, to confess their own true feelings or to recognise those of each other. (Haneke uses some cinematic tricks, such as filming from a distance so that we cannot hear what is being said, to emphasise these failures). Our social pain may be even more acute when we observe the poor tween daughter and her own constricted emotions, clearly borne of the treatment received from those around her. As always with Haneke, there are ideas to chew on here but they seem slightly less well digested than in some of his other films.

am vazut doar prima jumate in aer liber.

Haneke has served us so many great films that his newst efforts are always something to give a peep. Here he is back after the magnificent "Amore" and also brought some of the same actors in Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert. There are some interesting shots here, some of them done with cell phones. It takes quite some time to get a grip of the stoy as there are many people involve and we see parts from all of they're lives. When the needed connecting-bit comes throgh you feel the whole story and you feel you know everyone pretty well. There's not much happiness here. Everyone seem self-destructive no matter if they are 13, 90 or 40 years of age. OK acting but for me Fantine Harduin as the 13 year old "Eve" is the most impressive acress here. Some cool scenes, like the great karaokee scene, but other scenes are not bring that much to the table. It's like a bunch of short clips, they all plays important parts but I never really dig them. Part experimental, part boring, part solid. The result is fresh, but not fresh enough, hard hitting but never hard enough and I was left disappointed even if I liked the way the film made me feel like an observer like few other films do. 6 out of 10 cell phones.

Haneke does what he knows best, deconstructing the upper-middle class family, although the truth is, he's done that before with better results.

The more foreign films I watch, the more I worry that due to my being entrenched in American culture, I have a hard time relating to the dialogue and way of life of many characters within the films. I fear that this causes me to generalize and say that all the Austrian movies I've seen are similar, for example. Or the same about French films. Or any other country for that matter. I have come to realize that what I recognize is a director's style, perhaps moreso than when I watch an American produced film. Therefore this cultural gap has a real plus side: witnessing the film's director at their fullest, without any cultural bias. The more I see of Michael Haneke (coincidentally the only Austrian director's films I have seen), the more I'm sure he's just an evil genius. Much like with Ruben Ostlund's The Square (another film I love though may not review), I left Happy End with little bias, but with a full force message in front of me. The Square has a jovial message, Happy End has one that makes its title sting. Drenched in modern technology and set against an unmistakably non-american family backdrop, you find out just how much a story told in a different culture can amplify a message. No American movie could ever have (so maliciously) proven the point that Haneke sets out to prove. For the sake of letting you experience its overwhelming dread without spoilers, I will say nothing of the message other than that if you have never seen a Michael Haneke movie, don't let this be your first. If you have seen one, bask in the glory of Happy End. I will repeat, for any curious reader, Michael Haneke (director of dread fests such as Amour, Cache and Funny Games) is an evil genius. Evil. This movie's title is the only Happy thing about it, but again, the movie's message comes barreling in like a ton of bricks. It's impact? Not for the faint of heart. A film for film lovers and people willing to ponder over an uncompromising plot. Though Happy End did not destroy me the way Amour did in 2012, it's a welcome little feast of objective, unrelenting nihilism. AS ONLY HANEKE CAN DELIVER! Also of note, acting is top notch, and the use of technology is riveting, including shots of a vertical phone screen that only use up ~20% of the screen. Superb, and every Haneke fan should agree!

Nobody can make films about people who are slowly dying on the inside like Michael Haneke.

The film didn't completely impress me, but I still liked it.This is another good example of Haneke's distinctive filmmaking style and solid principles.Its mood and tone is tragic and bleak, in the way that only this master of world cinema is able to create.The ending was one of the most affecting and orginal final scenes I've ever seen.

This latest film from Michael Haneke (director of the wonderful Amour) stars Isabelle Huppert (as Anne) in a family dysfunction film. Everyone has issues. Anne is trying to turn her family's business around. Her brother suddenly becomes the full-time parent of his daughter after her mother slips into a coma. Anne's son cannot seem to rise to the responsibility as manager in the business. Anne's father is not particularly happy with life. Haneke weaves the story in unexpected ways - he leads you to think one outcome is coming and then suddenly takes you down a different path. I don't think this is at the level of Amour, but the film demonstrates a gutsy narrative style. If you like short, concise, no-spoilers reviews, you can see them at: whatwouldgarysay.com.

Nunca imaginei considerar um filme do Haneke sem, ao menos, quatro estrelinhas. Mas é difícil dizer que "gostei" desse. Alguns planos me lembraram "Caché"; há a crítica ao uso exacerbado da tecnologia, que por vezes nos anestesiam, por vezes nos induzem a fazer algo repreensível, mas que, na maioria das vezes, nos dão a sensação de proteção contra o "mundo real"; há uma reflexão sobre a natureza humana e sua ligação com a morte. Ainda assim, tudo isso é costurado de uma forma caótica demais. Ao menos, essa foi a impressão deixada por essa primeira sessão. Esse filme é o "The Square" do Haneke. Huh.

Rich people problems: who cares? I certainly couldn't care less, that is, unless Michael Haneke is directing a movie about them. When acquainting oneself with the prolific Austrian director's initial trilogy The Seventh Continent, 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, and Benny's Video, one gets the impression that, regardless of class distinctions, the fellow either hates mankind or can sympathize enough with any one of us to excuse murder. We're all one bad decision away from murder or suicide. All the bad decisions and circumstances that lead a person to violence should be indicative enough as to why. Haneke decides not to focus on the desperate struggle for survival that would compel a person to acts of extreme violence and hatred but rather the idle nature of modern life and encroaching pessimism that has spurred on so many awful events in recent years. Per Haneke's obsession with onscreen screens, Happy End opens with a 12 year old girl's phone video of her killing the pet hamster with her mother's anti-depressants, then there's CC온라인카지노추천 footage of a structural collapse at work site owned and operated by her aunt (played by the always enchanting Isabelle Huppert). The girl (Fantine Harduin) has to go live with her previously absent father and his well-to-do family due to the girl's surreptitious and similar treatment of her mother. In their house she witnesses the disingenuous behavior of adulthood while Huppert struggles with the legal and interpersonal consequences of the industrial accident. Much like The Seventh Continent, there's a cute young girl meeting her demise due to societal ills. Much like 71 Fragments..., disparate story lines concerning everyone involved congeal by the third act for some existentially unsettling moments of European ennui. And much like Benny's Video there's video documentation of childhood loss of innocence via a naive murder. Based on various synopses I've read of the movie, this is supposed to be related to the refugee crisis, but you only really encounter that problem on the outskirts of the narrative. For the most part, the film concerns an upper middle class family dealing with a pervasive death drive while everyone around them is just trying to get by. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays the declining elder patriarch of the family in an alternate reality version of his character from Haneke's Amour. His pragmatic view of mortality is that life is best left to those who want it or are able to appreciate it, no doubt a projection of Haneke's own depressing personal philosophy. At one point describing the horror of experience, Trintignant muses to Harduin that seeing death and violence on 온라인카지노추천 doesn't seem to bother one as much, but in person it's enough to make your hands shake. Most of the violence in Haneke's oeuvre occurs off screen, around the corner, from a distance, or on another screen within the film. In the final moments of the film, the girl resorts to her phone to witness such a Happy End. Perhaps it's to divorce herself from the reality of what's happening, perhaps to keep her hands from shaking, or maybe so it's as real as the rest of her emotions and experiences.

Unhappy start. Walked out of this at the early scene of animal cruelty. To the long litany of the tormenting and killing of animals for entertainment, sport or in the name of the so-called arts, we now have Haneke's hamster. And to add to the vileness, the treatment of this animal receives a parallel with the mother. Wasn't it this director who filmed the smashed aquarium and the fish suffocating on the carpet - unfortunately I remembered this too late to avoid the film. Should have known better. The half star is because you cannot post without putting a rating, so the little animal can have it. For the film - minus five.

A bit on the dark side and slow but some really good performances keep you interested.

I'm a devoted Michael Haneke fan. I always see his movies. He is a master of the macabre. Watching HAPPY END is like watching a family that has serious issues of the morose kind. It's not pretty to watch but the unfolding is worth seeing. Not his best film but still interesting nonetheless.

At the end none of the characters or problems were developed so you didn't care what happened to them.

Unlikeable characters

Not a film for halfwits

There are two compelling scenes in this film, between 13 year old Eve and her 85 year old grandfather. Despite the difference in ages they have both experienced the darker side of life and the quiet way they recognise this in each other is a tribute to the writing and acting. The rest of the film is rather uneven I found. The refugee crisis in Calais barely figures until the very end, when it seems shoehorned in for effect - or even as a device to allow the grandfather and Eve to slip away under cover of the commotion caused by a family member inviting some refugees to a posh engagement party. Toby Jones does what he does in his usual understated way but his character is an irrelevance to the plot sadly. Isabelle Huppert is terrific as always as the matriarch of the family.