March 25th, 2008

If You’re Into: The “Funny Games” Edition

By Susannah Jones

If you’re into Tim Roth
Try his more amusing turn as Charles Ferry in Woody Allen’s film musical, “Everyone Says I Love You”. Also starring Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Alan Alda, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton, and Woody Allen of course, this oddball romantic comedy follows enough silly love stories to warrant its all-inclusive title. Perhaps the most ridiculous and charming is the triangle between Skylar Dandridge (Barrymore), Holden Spence (Norton), and Charles Ferry (Roth). Skylar and Holden are happily engaged with a wedding registry at every fifth avenue hot spot, until Skylar meets Charles, a sexy ex-convict who sweeps her off her feet. But as the story unfolds, Charles shows his true colors that are not quite fitting for a classy socialite girl, no matter how dangerously appealing the offender might be. If Roth couldn’t prove himself as a capable male in “Funny Games”, he more than makes up for it here as he walks all over anyone who stands in his way with a tough guy sneer to make Marlon Brando whimper.

If You’re into Michael Haneke
Try another one of his tough to sit through but extremely compelling films, “The Piano Teacher” with Isabelle Huppert and Benoît Magimel. Huppert plays Erika Kohut, a desperately lonely but extremely talented pianist. Her repressed sexuality and general dissatisfaction with life lead her not only to detest her students to the point of sabotage, but bring out her sadomasochistic tendencies in relationships. She becomes obsessed with her lover, Walter Klemmer, who is excited to begin an affair with her until he realizes her dark and dangerous fantasies that he can’t bring himself to fulfill. Huppert and Magimel give fabulous performances, for which they won best actress and actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and this is Haneke at the height of his talent for disturbing his audiences. These characters are frighteningly real to the audience, more so than the camera consulting fiends of the “Funny Games” movies. Their plight is so much more effective and difficult to swallow, because it comes so close to what people can conceivably experience.

If you’re into being disturbed
Try “The Vanishing”, the Dutch film directed by George Sluizer. When his girlfriend, Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) disappears at a rest stop, Rex Hofman (Gene Bervoets) is driven mad with uncertainty about what happened to her. He devotes three years to solving the mystery to no avail. That is, until her captor Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) confronts the poor man with the knowledge of his girlfriend’s fate. Though Raymond admits to killing Saskia, the only way he will reveal the truth is if Rex consents to drinking a spiked cup of coffee, the result of which is beyond stomach churning. Rife with philosophical discussion and awful mind games, “The Vanishing” is one of those psychological horror films that has the capacity to haunt you even when the sun is shining and the lights are on. If the brutal message of “Funny Games” floats your boat, try “The Vanishing” for an even more startling denouement

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