Michael Haneke

To mark the occasion of Austria’s EU-Presidency, we are dedicating a season to its most famous director: Michael Haneke.

Since his debut feature in 1989, Haneke has assailed viewers with his tortured vision of our society through clinical descriptions of despair, murderous impulses, appalling sadism or everyday cowardice. He highlights the fragility of a civilisation that breeds its own monsters. A disciple of Robert Bresson’s restrained style, Haneke has never allowed his message or his radicalism to be diluted. “I hope all my films are provocative and obscene,” he told The Irish Times. “And by ‘obscene’ I mean I hope the films contradict generally held opinions.” His vision is certainly imbued with the Germanic culture of his roots. But the two-time Palme d’Or laureate has also provided us with ample proof of the universal nature of his thinking in films shot in France and the United States.

In collaboration with CINEMATEK