31st
haneke one, america zero
quick thoughts on funny games in america
1) someone was laughing in the theater. hysterically. like, not ironically or ‘this is so bad it’s funny’ laughing; just laughing.
1a) as i posted before, this means haneke wins. the movie snagged at least that one casual filmgoer that watched it as another torture porn movie and maybe, somehow didn’t get that they were being implicated/being-made-fun-of by the director.
2) Naomi Watts was not so good if you’ve seen the original once or twice. She was acting like Susanne Lothar acting like Anna and not like Anna.
3) except paul, who just wasn’t the right kind of creepy and too pudgy himself to make convincing fat jokes, everyone else was great.
4) naomi watts is, er, too pretty. and, as others have noted, anna stays in her underwear far longer than the original. but, i kind of suspect this was intentional as per 1a).
5) the excrutiating long shot of anna sitting in near-paralysis after the son is shot is cut short by at least half.
5a) this was the only Haneke movie that could ever be remade in america.
