Olympics 2012 Film Part 2 - South Africa, Yugoslavia, Turkey, New Zealand & Austria

Austria €“ 86 Medals Austria has quite the strange history when it comes to cinema. Many of its most famous directors left the country to go elsewhere to make their cinema. The likes of Fritz Lang, Josef Sternberg, Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger are just a few of the many classic directors to have been born in Austria. Yet the majority of their cinema was made in larger markets, such as America or Germany. When Nazi Germany occupied Austria, many of these directors and their actors emigrated to escape Nazi rule. Those who stayed had to comply with German requirements or risk the loss of its biggest exporter, Germany, who became essential in the export of Austrian films. This supported their national cinema quite heavily, and without Germany, which was an important market for Austrian films, the film industry would suffer. However after the war the film industry slowly began to rebuild itself. Musical comedies were in abundance, leading to the domestic market becoming extremely prosperous once more. However, financial aid from the government was not forthcoming for many years, meaning that the domestic output during these periods was low. This in turn, meant that any rebuilding post-WWII suffered, mainly because Austria lacked an identity within its film culture. It took the 1990s for Austrian cinema to gain prominence and begin to mould the personality, it once severely lacked. This was mostly through the work of one man, Michael Haneke. His filmography oozes quality, and as he is constantly lauded on the world stage; he has become the leader of a national cinema which continues to grow, and escalate in quality. While many may see him as a €˜Euro director€™ rather than an Austrian one, he is a talent which has brought attention back to the country€™s cinema, an important feat no doubt. It is no surprise than, that he picks up a Gold and Silver double. Bronze €“ Revanche (Gotz Spielmann, 2008) A brilliant film which was nominated for the foreign language Oscar, Revanche, is a story about a botched bank robbery that leads to repercussions for both its perpetrator, and the police officer that attempts to stop it. Alex, who works for the owner of a brothel, falls in love with an employee, Ukrainian prostitute, Tamara. Trying to begin a new life elsewhere, he plans a bank robbery to earn the money for both of them to escape their jobs. Tamara however, understands the potential consequences of going through with the robbery, scared about what the ramifications to be. On the other side are policeman Robert and his wife Susanne. Struggling to create a family due to Roberts€™s infertility, the couple are in love, but the lack of a child lingers over their marital existence, haunting its development. When both sides clash during the bank robbery, one seeks retribution for their loss. With performances that feel natural, the actors make their characters seem less like narrative pawns and more like humans stuck in a situation which is dictated by their emotions. The story thus becomes unpredictable, much like life. Unlike many films, the characters of the piece decide with their emotions, appearing to avoid a pre-ordained narrative expectation. A Neo-noir film that seems very American in nature, Revanche is a brilliant examination of the human mind coping with a loss whilst having the ability to exact revenge. It examines the mind having to confront the choices available to them, the result is rather superb. Silver - Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)

Haneke has helped develop Austrian new wave cinema into the European home of depressingly dark cinema; a lovely association to have. Violence has gone hand in hand with most of Haneke€™s filmography; Funny Games is no different. When an incredibly wealthy German family, Georg, his wife Anna and their son with accompanying dog, go for a holiday to their Austrian lake house, they meet two young men who claim to be friends of their next door neighbours. When they begin to impose themselves upon the family, their violent nature comes to the fore. Sadistic in character, they slowly begin to teasingly torture the family, betting that they will be dead by 9am the next morning. With no motivation for their aggression, the film highlights Haneke€™s focus on their violence as simply violence, a cruel part of our society. He views it as the violation of another being, a horrible act that is available to all humanity, regardless of class, upbringing and gender. In Funny Games, his use of violence is quite brilliant, never allowing an audience (who I imagine will be shocked by the events) a motivation for the antagonists. Haneke does not want to reassure his audience, he treats them with seriousness, deciding not to manipulate and control their viewpoints himself, with a narrative excuse. He wants them to think about the films issues; in fact the film was actually made for an intended audience, an American one. An audience which has become especially desensitised to the violence in our media, watching in fascination from afar, Funny Games brings it into the middle class tranquillity. In one famous scene amidst the breaking of the fourth wall, one of the killers rewinds the film, manipulating the narrative to show what he wants, the murder of the family. A direct reference to the manipulation of the media€™s image, Haneke is incredibly creative in his commentaries. Ironically, Funny Games was remade by Haneke himself for America, and while the remake feels a bit too polished for my liking, it still carries the same commentary. Gold - The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke, 1989)

For Haneke feature films came late on his career, this his debut, marked his first foray into cinema at the relatively old age of 47. Concentrating on three members of a middle class family, on the surface, The Seventh Continent seems like a film about the humdrum nature of middle class life. The family of the narrative are unhappy with their lives, yet their young daughter remains content, oblivious to the middle class mentality she is developing. All in all, the family seem relatively normal, the father Georg is an extremely successful engineer, the mother an optician and the daughter a prim and proper young girl. However, their middle class life seems to be getting to them, and acts which may seem commonplace in our lives, begin to dehumanise them. This dehumanization, leads them to plan a suicide which is detailed in proposal and horrific in nature. This film would become the first example of Haneke€™s obsession with the middle class existence, and his exploration of random violence without an apparent motivation. The chilling way that Haneke depicts the everyday tasks that have led the family to become disillusioned, is quite simply brilliant. He evokes the dullness of tying a shoelace by tightening his shots; he lingers upon them, examining their monotonous existence. Haneke bears no judgement on the family€™s decision; in fact he is completely objective, helping to elevate the films cold and detached tone. The way Haneke ends the film is frenetic yet controlled, its chilling yet composed, and most of all its brilliant.