Isabelle Huppert is a great actress - she has always been and will probably always be. Of course, Michael Haneke's cinematography is very nice although it shows occasional glimpses of Hanekian pretentiousness, but worse than that: this film is useless. Only a shocker. Haneke and Huppert say in interviews that this is a film about control. It is mainly an apology of misogyny.
*major spoilers*
So the woman is disturbed. Fine. She obviously can't control herself much anyway. Nothing forces this guy to hang on to her. He doesn't help her either: he just criticizes her (that's how much he loves her). Then he becomes violent towards her (and her mother !) repeating several times that (poor) men shouldn't be turned on so much or else it just drives them crazy. Consequence: he beats her up and rapes her. Let's not forget how many times he mentions that it's all her fault... Thanks Mr. Haneke, we couldn't get the message the first time around.
Conclusion to this brilliant film: he gets away with it and she kills herself.
Morality: Do you feel uplifted by this junk ? Has it opened your mind about anything you hadn't thought of before watching it ? Did you even just have a good time watching it (leave alone the great performances) ? Is this leading anywhere ? Answering "no" to even just one of these questions already makes it a bad film. I answer "no" to all four.
*major spoilers*
So the woman is disturbed. Fine. She obviously can't control herself much anyway. Nothing forces this guy to hang on to her. He doesn't help her either: he just criticizes her (that's how much he loves her). Then he becomes violent towards her (and her mother !) repeating several times that (poor) men shouldn't be turned on so much or else it just drives them crazy. Consequence: he beats her up and rapes her. Let's not forget how many times he mentions that it's all her fault... Thanks Mr. Haneke, we couldn't get the message the first time around.
Conclusion to this brilliant film: he gets away with it and she kills herself.
Morality: Do you feel uplifted by this junk ? Has it opened your mind about anything you hadn't thought of before watching it ? Did you even just have a good time watching it (leave alone the great performances) ? Is this leading anywhere ? Answering "no" to even just one of these questions already makes it a bad film. I answer "no" to all four.