Michael Haneke Biography, Filmography and Facts. Full List of Movies: Birthday: 23 March 1942, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Nobody writing a novel would want to write something that claimed to understand everything that happ...Show more »

Nobody writing a novel would want to write something that claimed to understand everything that happens in the story. It's the same with film. If you want to explain something, it can only be explained through structure .... But it's always ambiguous, as opposed to narrating in a way that is always trying to explain. It's too talky and banal that way. Show less «

[on being presented a Golden Globe Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger] I never thought to get an award...Show more »

[on being presented a Golden Globe Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger] I never thought to get an award in Hollywood by an Austrian. Show less «

I always want to leave open the answer to the question, 'Why did someone do something?' In this case...Show more »

I always want to leave open the answer to the question, 'Why did someone do something?' In this case, [any] answer is only there to reassure and to calm the viewer. To say, 'His mommy didn't love her little boy enough,' is ridiculous. That's not it. I think the reason for a crime or an accident is always much more complex than what you can describe in seventy minutes. Show less «

We allow ourselves feelings when facing an image, but not a person, because it's more dangerous, sin...Show more »

We allow ourselves feelings when facing an image, but not a person, because it's more dangerous, since the image can no longer react. The image is finished, so you can be relaxed. In principle, that's where all horror films come from , because you can take pleasure in the horror because you can be sure that it can't do anything to you .... But if we try to do that with the things in our life, obviously it's extremely dangerous. And that's sort of the story that's told in Benny's Video (1992). Show less «

A feature film is twenty-four lies per second.

I'm lucky enough to be able to make films and so I don't need a psychiatrist. I can sort out my fear...Show more »

I'm lucky enough to be able to make films and so I don't need a psychiatrist. I can sort out my fears and all those things with my work. That's an enormous privilege. That's the privilege of all artists, to be able to sort out their unhappiness and their neuroses in order to create something. Show less «

I don't really ask myself too much where the ideas come from. When things touch you or anger you, yo...Show more »

I don't really ask myself too much where the ideas come from. When things touch you or anger you, you are moved to want to examine them, to reflect on them. But yes, I guess you could say [Amour (2012)] is a memento mori, though it would never occur to me to use that term, since it might sound a little bit sentimental. Show less «

[on why he considers Marlon Brando and Jean-Louis Trintignant to be his favorite actors] They don't ...Show more »

[on why he considers Marlon Brando and Jean-Louis Trintignant to be his favorite actors] They don't externalize or project everything. They keep a mystery within themselves, and that I think is the sign of a truly great actor, to be able to maintain that. Show less «

Faith per se is something positive; it generates meaning. I for one have no religious faith anymore....Show more »

Faith per se is something positive; it generates meaning. I for one have no religious faith anymore. Tough luck! Show less «

[on teaching film] I guess I'm a relatively demanding teacher because I think it's no use treating s...Show more »

[on teaching film] I guess I'm a relatively demanding teacher because I think it's no use treating students with kid gloves. At the Academy, they are working with a net anyway, so I try to quickly raise the requirements to prepare them for the professional life. I also try and give them internships on my shoots, but it can't be more than two per film. And usually I don't mix with the students on a personal level. I mean, I give advice whenever they call me, but I don't go out for a beer with them. I don't believe the role of "best buddy" is something that a teacher or parent should aspire to. I think kids hate that, they find their buddies at school, but in a father or teacher they look for a role model. Show less «

I like the multiplicity of books, because each book is different in the mind of each reader. It's th...Show more »

I like the multiplicity of books, because each book is different in the mind of each reader. It's the same with this film - if 300 people are in a cinema watching it, they will all see a different film, so in a way there are thousands of different versions of Caché (2005). The point being that, despite what TV shows us, and what the news stories tell us, there is never just one truth, there is only personal truth. Show less «

[on Benny's Video (1992)] Benny thinks he can control things by incorporating them into video, for e...Show more »

[on Benny's Video (1992)] Benny thinks he can control things by incorporating them into video, for example, with the camera on the street. Of course, it's an illusion, even a dangerous illusion. Why do people film their vacations? I've never done that, nor even taken pictures. I find that totally perverse. [I think the idea they have is that] if I have an image of that, I possess it. Naturally, that's ridiculous. It's a very strong desire, caused, I think, by the media. We see the world via the media, so we're in danger of thinking that only through the media is there a reality. But it's exactly the opposite. Show less «

I am most concerned with television as the key symbol primarily of the media representation of viole...Show more »

I am most concerned with television as the key symbol primarily of the media representation of violence [especially in Benny's Video (1992) and Funny Games (1997)], and more generally of a greater crisis, which I see as our collective loss of reality and social disorientation. Alienation is a very complex problem, but television is certainly implicated in it. We don't, of course, anymore perceive reality, but instead the representation of reality in television. Our experiential horizon is very limited. What we know of the world is little more than the mediated world, the image We have is not reality, but a derivative of reality, which is extremely dangerous, most certainly from a political standpoint but in a larger sense to our ability to have a palpable sense of the truth of everyday experience. Show less «

I remember when Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) came out, and I was sitting in a matinee fil...Show more »

I remember when Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) came out, and I was sitting in a matinee filled with young people. The famous scene of a boy's head being blown off caused a huge commotion in the theater. They thought it was great and they almost died laughing. I was upset because I think it's irresponsible. Show less «

The question is, is film merely entertainment, or is it more? If it is art, it has to be more. Art c...Show more »

The question is, is film merely entertainment, or is it more? If it is art, it has to be more. Art can be entertaining. Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964) is entertaining, [but] it is more than diversion, it is concentration, [it] focuses your thoughts. [so cinema can change the world?] No, but it can make it a less sad place than it already is. Show less «

I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real w...Show more »

I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real world rather than a dream world. Show less «

My favourite film-maker of the decade is Abbas Kiarostami. He achieves a simplicity that's so diffic...Show more »

My favourite film-maker of the decade is Abbas Kiarostami. He achieves a simplicity that's so difficult to attain. Show less «

[When asked why he's making movies] Never ask the centipede why it walks, or it will stumble.

[on long takes vs. TV] Perhaps I can connect [the long-take] to the issue of television. Television ...Show more »

[on long takes vs. TV] Perhaps I can connect [the long-take] to the issue of television. Television accelerates our habits of seeing. Look, for example, at advertising in that medium. The faster something is shown, the less able you are to perceive it as an object occupying a space in physical reality and the more it becomes something seductive. And the less real the image seems to be, the quicker you buy the commodity it seems to depict. Of course, this type of aesthetic has gained the upper hand in commercial cinema. Television accelerates experience, but one needs time to understand what one sees, which the current media disallows. Not just understand on an intellectual level, but emotionally. The cinema can offer very little that is new; everything that is said has been said a thousand times, but cinema still has the capacity, I think, to let us experience the world anew. Show less «

Whatever story you tell, there's already been one like it. So how do you have a deeper impact on the...Show more »

Whatever story you tell, there's already been one like it. So how do you have a deeper impact on the viewer? One of the possibilities is the rhythm, which is what film is actually all about. It's much closer to music than to literature. Show less «

[on his satisfaction as an artist] In terms of cinema and filmmaking, there are certainly the unexpe...Show more »

[on his satisfaction as an artist] In terms of cinema and filmmaking, there are certainly the unexpected gifts that the actors bestow on you. Film is always a question of compromises with respect to what you originally intended. Show less «

[on what interests him as a moviegoer] I'm interested in seeing films that confront me with new thin...Show more »

[on what interests him as a moviegoer] I'm interested in seeing films that confront me with new things, with films that make me question myself, with films that help me to reflect on subjects that I hadn't thought about before, films that help me progress and advance. Those are the kinds of films that interest me. For me, personally, I think watching a movie that simply confirms my feelings is a waste of time. That applies not only to movies, but also to books and every form of art. Show less «

Of course, film is always manipulation, but if each scene is only one shot, then, I think, there is ...Show more »

Of course, film is always manipulation, but if each scene is only one shot, then, I think, there is at least less of a sense of time being manipulated when one tries to stay close to a 'real time' framework. The reduction of montage to a minimum also tends to shift responsibility back to the viewer in that contemplation is required. Show less «

There are those who see film and take it seriously as an artistic medium, and others who go to have ...Show more »

There are those who see film and take it seriously as an artistic medium, and others who go to have a good time, to simply be entertained. I have to be careful , because it sounds like I am condemning, or criticizing what people are doing. I have nothing against that, in the same way that some people like rock music or to go dancing, and other people like to go to a Beethoven concert. It's just that I'm more interested in the one than the other. Show less «

It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'l...Show more »

It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass. Show less «

[on Amour (2012)] As I watched [Trintignant] and Emmanuelle Riva, I was thinking of medieval palimps...Show more »

[on Amour (2012)] As I watched [Trintignant] and Emmanuelle Riva, I was thinking of medieval palimpsets, those documents in which you see remnants of older writing under the top layer. In this case it was mental images of these two great iconic figures of the French nouvelle vague as the younger, more vigorous and physically beautiful figures they once were. Show less «

I think what I'm proposing is a very old contractual agreement - that both the producer and receiver...Show more »

I think what I'm proposing is a very old contractual agreement - that both the producer and receiver of a work of art take each other seriously. On the other hand, today's conventional cinema, or mass cinema ... sees the audience member as a bank machine, whose only function is to spit out money. It pretends to satisfy viewers' needs, but refuses to do so. Show less «

[on formal techniques, refusal to explain character motivations in conventional cinematic manner]Eve...Show more »

[on formal techniques, refusal to explain character motivations in conventional cinematic manner]Every kind of explanation is just something that's there to make you feel better, and at the same time it's a lie. It's a lie to calm you, because the real explanation would be so complex, it would be impossible to have in 90 minutes of film or 200 pages of a novel. Show less «

I wait for each new film by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Abbas Kiarostami, Claire Denis an...Show more »

I wait for each new film by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Abbas Kiarostami, Claire Denis and Bruno Dumont. I enjoy all sorts of films, but those are the people that really interest me. I admire the Dardenne brothers tremendously, but I feel closest, in my work, to Dumont. Dumont's films are basically existential works, philosophical films, not political ones. I think of my own films that way.[Sept. 23, 2007] Show less «

Pornography, it seems to me, is no different from war films or propaganda films in that it tries to ...Show more »

Pornography, it seems to me, is no different from war films or propaganda films in that it tries to make the visceral, horrific, or transgressive elements of life consumable. Show less «

Films that are entertainments give simple answers but I think that's ultimately more cynical, as it ...Show more »

Films that are entertainments give simple answers but I think that's ultimately more cynical, as it denies the viewer room to think. If there are more answers at the end, then surely it is a richer experience. Show less «

The mainstream cinema tries to feed you the idea that there are solutions, but that's bullshit. You ...Show more »

The mainstream cinema tries to feed you the idea that there are solutions, but that's bullshit. You can make a lot of money with these lies. But if you take the viewer seriously as your partner, the only thing that you can do is to put the questions strongly. In this case, maybe he will find some answer. If you give the answer, you lie. Whatever kind of security you try to feed somebody is an illusion .... I want to make it clear: it's not that I hate mainstream cinema. It's perfectly fine. There are a lot of people who need to escape, because they are in very difficult situations .... But this has nothing to do with an art form. An art form is obliged to confront reality, to try to find a little piece of the truth .... These questions, "What is reality?" and "What is reality in a movie?" are a main part of my work. Show less «

Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke's FILMOGRAPHY