Curated by Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Michael Haneke’s films have often dealt with the uncomfortable truths of violence and its cinematic representation.
From the shocking and numbing brutality of Benny’s Video (1992) to the ‘meta’ and disturbing play of Funny Games (1997 & 2007). Both films have raised the question, what draws us as viewers to the depiction of violence and what corrosive effect is it having on us.
In Hidden the question takes on an extra dimension as the act of surveillance and watching directly implicates the audience in its voyeuristic first-person camera gaze, asking the tantalising question, who is doing the watching?
The inconvenient truth of that answer takes on a shocking dimension when the films protagonists begin to unravel a past seeped in colonial guilt and retribution. When the horrific act of cinematic violence does finally occur (as it inevitably does in most of Haneke’s films), we are all implicated in the act of watching and finally, bearing witness.
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
The Eyes Without A Face film series is part of our program of ancillary events surrounding our presentation of the 1984 stage production.
CREDITS
Director Michael Haneke (2005)
