News

Silly Americans…

After concluding spooky season with a reappraisal of Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (the Director’s Cut), we’re moving into November by kicking off a new theme of episodes on toxic masculinity. First up is Michael Haneke‘s fourth wall-breaking film Funny Games!

In Funny Games, Anna (Susanne Lothar) and Georg (Ulrich Mühe) and their son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski) visit their idyllic lakeside vacation home, only to be terrorized by Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), a pair of deeply disturbed young men. Paul and Peter take the family hostage and subject them to the titular “funny games,” which doubles as a critique of (American) viewers themselves.

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Episode 254: Funny Games (1997)

Buckle up...

Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Susanne Lothar, Stefan Clapczynski, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering | Written and Directed by Michael Haneke

An innocuous sight opens this feature from writer/director Michael Haneke, as a car travels while containing the Schober family – made up of husband Georg (Ulrich Mühe), wife Anna (Susanne Lothar), young son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski), and dog Rolfi. They pass the journey to their holiday home with a song guessing game, until one song stumps Georg. Much like the classical music playing on the car speakers, the film’s sound is then drowned out by hard rock, an effective indication of how any expectations of an arthouse feature is changed to something more hardcore.

While unpacking, the family are visited by two young men – Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering) – who ask to borrow eggs. The pair overstay their welcome as Peter clumsily breaks numerous batches of eggs and knocks the family’s phone into water,...

Horror films and controversy often go hand in hand. Historically, no genre has pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable onscreen as much as horror, with authorities like the MPAA and the BBFC constantly stepping in to protect filmgoers from extreme content.

Controversies abound in horror, with countless examples of censorship, intrusive cuts, or outright bans. Other times, films can provoke a visceral reaction from the audience; "Audition" prompted people to faint in the initial screenings, for example, while "The Exorcist" gained everlasting notoriety for the apparent hysteria it caused in cinemas.

Rather than a comprehensive list, this represents a broad spread of different types of controversial deaths in horror films. It might best be summed up as 14 of the most interesting controversial deaths, rather than necessarily all of the most obvious choices. As such, please take the order with a pinch of salt. Lots of spoilers below, so beware!

It’s time for a new episode of our video series Best Foreign Horror Movies, and with this one we’re looking back at a movie that is quite disturbing. The 1997 Austrian production Funny Games (get it Here). To find out what we had to say about Funny Games, check out the video embedded above.

Written and directed by Michael Haneke, Funny Games has the following synopsis:

An idyllic lakeside vacation home is terrorized by Paul and Peter, a pair of deeply disturbed young men. When the fearful Anna is home alone, the two men drop by for a visit that quickly turns violent and terrifying. Husband Georg comes to her rescue, but Paul and Peter take the family hostage and subject them to nightmarish abuse and humiliation. From time to time, Paul talks to the film’s audience, making it complicit in the horror.

The film stars Arno Frisch,...

It’s widely held that Michael Haneke is a singular, powerfully disturbing, and provocative voice in European cinema, and he gained international recognition with the controversial Funny Games. Released in 1997 and followed a decade later by an equally unsettling American shot-for-shot remake, Haneke’s purpose (the aim of most of his work) was to provoke audiences by presenting them with a dialogue of violence between those watching and the characters carrying out the horrific events unfolding on-screen. The story concerns two dandy-mannered outcasts, Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), violently dismantling the upper-middle-class family unit via torture, humiliation, and murder. Haneke broke the mold in how he reconstructed the type of villain usually operating within this genre: The sociopaths here defy the traditional brutal and hypermasculine home invaders of horror cinema’s blood-spattered past. When the antagonistic duo isn’t meta-speaking directly to the viewer or tormenting the inhabitants...

With Halloween fast approaching, EW is picking the five best films in a variety of different horror movie categories. Each day, we’ll post our top picks from one specific group—say, vampire movies or slasher flicks—and give you the chance to vote on which is your favorite. On Oct. 31, EW will reveal your top choices. Today, we’re ready to talk about those movies that hit a little too close to home. All horror movies prey on the psychological premise that there's beastliness roiling within everyone. But let's get real: You don't see news reports about werewolves, vampires,...

Popular Monday Night Double-Feature Block to Present Full Month of Horror Madness

Culver City, Calif., Sept. 26, 2011 - Sony Movie Channel is celebrating Halloween throughout the entire month of October as its weekly double-feature block Mandays takes a stab as Killer Mandays.

“Sony Movie Channel is thrilled to bring such high quality horror films to our viewers during the month of October,” said Superna Kalle. “With such prestigious filmmakers as John Carpenter and Tsui Hark programmed for Killer Mandays, our audience will be screaming for more.”

The thrills will continue online when from Monday, October 3rd - Thursday, November 3rd, sonymoviechannel.com will launch a “Killer Mandays Costume Contest,” where people can submit a photograph of their best horror costume. The winner, voted on by the public, will win a Sony Blu-ray Player and a “Resident Evil” Blu-ray collection. Additional prizing to ten second place winners will include a “Resident Evil” Blu-ray collection.

Cologne, Germany -- Actor Heinrich Schmieder one of Germany's most recognizable small screen stars, died this week. He was 40.

It is the second sudden death of a German star in as many months. In June, the 38-year-old Frank Giering, whose performances in Michael Haneke's original "Funny Games" and Sebastian Schipper's "Gigantics" marked him as one of his generation's leading lights, died of organ failure following a colic attack.

The cause of Schmieder's death is still unclear. His agent, Birgit Vogel, would only confirm that Schmieder had been found dead in a hotel bed in the Italian town of Livigno. The actor, an amateur sports enthusiast, had been taking part in the mountain biking race, Bike Transalp. A teammate found his body.

Schmieder had small supporting roles in feature films including the Oscar-nominated "Downfall" (2004) and Bavarian comedy "Brandner Kaspar" (2008) but it was in TV drama that he made his name.

Michael Haneke’s Funny Games was a fine lesson in audience manipulation. With its nightmarish scenario, extremely clever script and pitch-perfect performances, it still remains one of the most intense experiences film can offer.

The remake, made by Haneke himself, doesn’t really have the same impact as the original. It’s transporting to Us soil might have been an interesting take, but it was a rather hollow affair.

Actor Frank Giering played the role of Peter with great aplomb. He first appears; glimpsed rather, inside the property of another family (how we learn in hindsight are at the very end of their ‘funny game’. Next, he turns up all innocent and bumbling asking to borrow some eggs…the game begins!

It was Giering’s most famous role but he also worked on the popular German t.v show, Der Kriminalist. In a statement, the programme makers said:

“We are...

German actor Frank Giering has died, aged 38.

The star was found dead at his apartment in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday. Police are investigating his cause of death.

Best known for his role as a courteous psychopath in Michael Haneke's 1997 film Funny Games, Giering was often cited as an inspiration for wannabe performers.

He was well known in his homeland for small, supporting roles and his part as Chief Inspector Henry Weber in German crime series Der Kriminalist. Programme bosses have halted filming on the new season of the show.

A statement from Odeon Film, the company behind Der Kriminalist, reads, "We are deeply moved by the much too early death of this young, talented actor. With Frank Giering we have lost a very treasured colleague who has in the past four years accompanied and enriched us."

Giering openly spoke of his struggles with alcoholism and claimed his emotional issues stemmed from growing up in communist East Germany.

Cologne, Germany -- German actor Frank Giering, who played a courteous psychopath in Michael Haneke's 1997 film "Funny Games" and starred in hit German crime series "Der Kriminalist," died Wednesday in Berlin. He was 38.

Born and raised in East Germany, Giering was well known and successful without ever becoming a star. In many ways, his career -- which began in theater before moving mainly to supporting, often small-screen roles -- resembled that of Christoph Waltz before "Inglourious Basterds." And like Waltz he was an actor's actor, often cited as an inspiration by a younger generation of performers.

"Giering is God," is how Robert Stadlober ("Krabat") put it.

But Giering also struggled with alcoholism and self-doubt, issues he discussed publicly. He once described himself as a "remnant" of the Gdr and not suited for modern life. German police are investigating the cause of death.

Giering has a series of small roles...

Locarno International Film Festival

LOCARNO, Switzerland -- The momentary distraction of a stolen kiss causes a train wreck in Austrian director Peter Payer's haunting drama Free to Leave, (Freigesprochen), which explores the impact such guilt has on the individuals concerned. Clear-eyed but compassionate, the film has an eerie quality that derives from the notion that almost anyone could be in a similar situation that dramatically changes the lives of so many people. Screened in Competition at Locarno, it's an intelligent drama that should travel beyond German-speaking territories and possibly invite an English-language version.

Based on a play titled Judgment Day by Odon von Horvath, Free to Leave begins with a body falling from a bridge to hard frozen ground. Time shifts immediately to the bustle of a small town with people anxious because a strike by transport workers is affecting the train timetable.

Ferdinand (Robert Stadlober) decides to take a later slow train in order to spend extra time in bed with his sweetheart Anna (Lavinia Wilson). Thomas (Frank Giering), however, spurns the attentions of his older wife, Hanni (Corinna Harfouch) as he must get to work promptly because his day will be hectic overseeing all the railway traffic signals. His best friend Josef (Alfred Dorfer) is off on his usual morning milk round.

Having seen her boyfriend off at the station, Anna stops into the control office to see Thomas, who's like an older brother to her although she likes to flirt with him. Larking about, she spontaneously kisses him, taking his attention away from the control board. In that fleeting moment, a signal is missed, a railway barrier is not lowered and an express train powers into Josef's milk truck. In the derailment, 22 people including Josef are killed and scores more seriously injured.

The film explores the shattering impact of such an event less on the hurt and bereaved than on the ones responsible. Thomas and Anna are drawn together even as their relationship with others begins to fragment. It's unremitting stuff and Payer handles it with insight, demonstrating impressive cinematic technique.

Giering unerringly conveys his character's draining self-worth while Wilson portrays a woman spinning giddily out of control. Harfouch contributes a convincing portrayal of a woman trying staunchly to absorb the horrifying outcome of her husband's waywardness.

The wintry landscape well captured by cinematographer Andreas Berger and a poignant score by Andre Mergenthaler and Walter Cikan help deepen the film's despairing mood.

FREE TO LEAVE

Lotus Films, Iris Productions

Credits:

Director: Peter Payer

Writer: Peter Payer

Based on the play by: Odon von Horvath

Producers: Erich Lackner, Nicolas Steil

Director of photography: Andreas Berger

Production designers: Elisabeth Klobassa, Christina Schaffer

Music: Andre Mergenthaler, Walter Cikan

Costume designer: Uli Simon

Editor: Cordula Werner

Cast:

Thomas: Frank Giering

Anna: Lavinia Wilson

Hanni: Corinna Harfouch

Ferdinand: Robert Stadlober

Josef: Alfred Dorfer

Anna's father: Thierry van Werveke

Running time -- 96 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Berlin International Film Festival

BERLIN -- "Nightsongs" (Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder) is a spectacularly bad movie. Based on a Norwegian play by Jon Fosse that seldom leaves an apartment living room, Romuald Karmakar's film is essentially a 95-minute quarrel between a young couple in a disintegrating marriage. When the movie's first line is "I can't take it anymore", you have nowhere to go but into a downward spiral of repetitious dialogue, bitter recriminations and abject misery. Even festival directors will shy away from booking this house-emptier.

A young couple lives in Berlin's Mitte district, where old and new collide in a postmodern hodgepodge. The woman (newcomer Anne Ratte-Polle) has just had a baby but still wants to go nightclubbing, see friends and enjoy life. The man (Frank Giering, a dynamic actor handcuffed here by a role of complete inertia) lies on a sofa and reads all day. Depressed by continual rejections of his writing from publishers, he has retreated into an agoraphobic stupor.

She harangues him, and he answers in monosyllables. You get the feeling they have this fight daily. He only displays energy when he suspects her of infidelity. He turns out not to be wrong as a third-act entrance by one Baste (Sebastian Schipper) makes clear. ("You're still probably the father," Baste comforts the husband.)

Ultimately, the woman can't bring herself to leave. She says she will miss her kitchen pots. Yes, she actually says that.

Some in the film's festival debut audience took much of this to be an intentional comedy. But director Karmakar (who adapted by play with Martin Rosenfeldt) and his cast lay too much stress on the angst-ridden drama and bitter words for this notion to be fully persuasive. Celebrated cinematographer Fred Schuler's camera glares steadily at the forlorn characters, as even the walls appear to close in on them, driving them further into despair.

Marthe Keller, always a welcome presence onscreen, turns up briefly as the man's mother in a sequence designed to drive home the point that even his parents can barely stand him. Long before the end, one has grown convinced that these two deserve one another.

Berlin International Film Festival

BERLIN -- "Nightsongs" (Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder) is a spectacularly bad movie. Based on a Norwegian play by Jon Fosse that seldom leaves an apartment living room, Romuald Karmakar's film is essentially a 95-minute quarrel between a young couple in a disintegrating marriage. When the movie's first line is "I can't take it anymore", you have nowhere to go but into a downward spiral of repetitious dialogue, bitter recriminations and abject misery. Even festival directors will shy away from booking this house-emptier.

A young couple lives in Berlin's Mitte district, where old and new collide in a postmodern hodgepodge. The woman (newcomer Anne Ratte-Polle) has just had a baby but still wants to go nightclubbing, see friends and enjoy life. The man (Frank Giering, a dynamic actor handcuffed here by a role of complete inertia) lies on a sofa and reads all day. Depressed by continual rejections of his writing from publishers, he has retreated into an agoraphobic stupor.

She harangues him, and he answers in monosyllables. You get the feeling they have this fight daily. He only displays energy when he suspects her of infidelity. He turns out not to be wrong as a third-act entrance by one Baste (Sebastian Schipper) makes clear. ("You're still probably the father," Baste comforts the husband.)

Ultimately, the woman can't bring herself to leave. She says she will miss her kitchen pots. Yes, she actually says that.

Some in the film's festival debut audience took much of this to be an intentional comedy. But director Karmakar (who adapted by play with Martin Rosenfeldt) and his cast lay too much stress on the angst-ridden drama and bitter words for this notion to be fully persuasive. Celebrated cinematographer Fred Schuler's camera glares steadily at the forlorn characters, as even the walls appear to close in on them, driving them further into despair.

Marthe Keller, always a welcome presence onscreen, turns up briefly as the man's mother in a sequence designed to drive home the point that even his parents can barely stand him. Long before the end, one has grown convinced that these two deserve one another.

IN JULY

The well-liked opening film of the festival and a top 10 hit in Germany when it opened in late August, writer-director Fatih Akin's "In July", his second feature, is a fairly traditional romance in the guise of an offbeat road movie.

Moritz Bleibtreu of "Run Lola Run" plays tall, handsome and lovestruck Daniel. Unfortunately for the equally attractive and romantically inclined Juli, which is German for July and the month in which the story takes place, Daniel is not on a quest to win her heart.

The story begins in Hamburg, Germany, and features misadventures in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Physics professor Daniel tries to reach Istanbul, Turkey, for a rendezvous with a beautiful girl he's only seen once or twice. He picks up carefree Juli, played by Christiane Paul, as a traveling companion. The pair met earlier on the sidewalk, when he bought a ring from her. She has chosen him for his manly awkwardness and big heart. He's doesn't pay attention to her, but he can't get along without her.

Unpredictable in a few places and always watchable because of the charismatic duo of Bleibtreu and Paul, "In July" has a terrific soundtrack and a few magical cinematic moments that define true love and prove more effective than the usual mainstream approach.

THE STATE I AM IN

A strong role for up-and-coming actress Julia Hummer (who has a small but memorable part in "Gigantic"), "The State I Am In" is a tense coming-of-age drama about the rebellious daughter of rebellious parents.

Clara (Barbara Auer) and Hans (Richy Muller) are always saying that things will get better. With teenage daughter Jeanne (Hummer), they are hiding out on the coast of Portugal, waiting to move to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and assume new identities.

Although it's never clearly established what past crimes they are guilty of, Jeanne's mom and dad set out to rob a bank in Germany. While Jeanne is a knowing part of their plan, she increasingly resists their attempts to stop her from having a boyfriend. A surfer she meets on the beach, Heinrich (Bilge Bingul), says he's just a "McJobber who loves Brian Wilson," but Jeanne falls in love as best she can. Believably complicated and unable to escape participation in the bloody finale, she is scarred but still standing at the end of director Christian Petzold's tightly wound fourth feature.

FORGET AMERICA

Set mostly in the German town of Aschersleben, this semicomical romantic triangle finds David Marek Harloff) and Benno (Roman Knizka), two best friends who are stuck in a rut, both falling for Anna (Franziska Petri), a would-be actress from nearby Halle. The first solo feature from Munich-based director Vanessa Jopp, "Forget America" is fairly tame but involving. The screenplay by Maggie Peren certainly gives plenty of frustrating moments to lead character David, a photographer who initially lets Benno get the upper hand and spends the rest of the movie regretting it.

The three actors are engagingly attuned to the young and moderately reckless milieu, which includes Benno's business selling vintage American cars and David's dingy life at home with a skinhead younger brother and disabled father. Anna comes in and out of their lives, spending most of her energy on violently emotional Benno while giving David discouraging signals over his obvious infatuation with her. All three unexpectedly underachieve in their dream careers. In the resulting tension, Benno starts to self-destruct, causing Anna to drift toward David.

GIGANTIC

Co-produced by Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") and directed by one of the actors in that film, Sebastian Schipper, "Gigantic" is an X Filme Creative Pool production that bowed stateside at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. A bit loopy in the storytelling department -- a lot of comedy, adventure and drama is packed into the film's one long night -- "Gigantic" is satisfying enough to interest festival audiences. The character-driven piece follows three male friends in Hamburg, Germany. One of the friends is leaving for faraway places and probably is never coming back.

Walter (Antoine Monot Jr.) owns a big muscle car that transports him and pals Ricco (Florian Lukas) and Floyd (Frank Giering) on a round of adventuring that includes several run-ins with a troupe of angry, Elvis-themed circus performers. Ricco is the noisy daredevil of the group, but reliable Walter and gloomy Floyd -- the one leaving -- are not ones to walk away from a challenge.

They get their wish to experience "gigantic" things when a high-stakes Foosball game with a formidable opponent named Snake goes their way. The game is a lengthy, imaginatively executed sequence. The melancholy sentiments of the night climax when their underage, party-girl companion Telsa (Julia Hummer) almost dies from alcohol poisoning.

David Hunter...