Audience Member
No idea why Rotten Tomatoes have no official entry for Haneke's superlative feature debut, so I've had to place it here. As with all of Haneke's work the scenario here is cool, elliptical and creeps up on the viewer with few signposts. In particular, there is very little indication in the first half of what is to unfold in the second. Here is a young family living the kind of life so many of us do: materially comfortable, slightly sterile and certainly repetitive. So the climax when it comes is all the more sad and disturbing. Haneke's films are everything Hollywood is not: bracing, intelligent and confrontational.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
For years, The Seventh Continent has been a special film for me. The most chilling of horrors, one which has affected me like no other film. Talking to others about this is usually met with indifference.
Expertly directed, offering a little glimpse of family life, and the more that is shown, the more we realise that the family is not quite right. As the film ratchets up the tension we know something terrible will happen, and by the time the film reaches its climax, you're tortured beyond belief.
The film makes you invest without relying on schmaltz and false sentiment, it makes you think and form me it really made me think. Such a great piece of cinema. The first of Haneke's glaciation trilogy, concentrating on European middle-class alienation and probably the best of the three.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
Apesar de ser talvez o filme em que Haneke mais revela da sua observação gradual do vazio nas rotinas de família, "The Seventh Continent" sujeita-se a uns quantos momentos ocos precisamente porque esses fazem parte do que pretende investigar.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
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Audience Member
Mind-numbingly mundane and monotonous. The film synopsis warns that this film is not for everyone - it was certainly not for me! One of the worst films EVER.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
easily a masterpiece directorial debut by artistic (meaning art house) standards: quality actors, however sterile and unspoken they are asked to perform; frankly realistic with a pragmatically surreal undercurrent, if that makes sense, like in haneke's other works. haneke as a latent auteur (this was released at age 47) but as a preemptively experienced movie critique sort of explains some of the sharp and unique directing choices. also intriguing a movie (if somewhat depressing and saddening) to look at, in terms of development of characters; and rather bleak, nihilistic, and philosophical, but no more than haneke's other similarly themed and clinically directed stuff.. saw it when i was relatively young and before it became more popularized (and written about) and had no idea what i had just watched. becomes more relevant and palpably cynical as you get older though, especially given the increasing sharing of (rapidly worn out) information, ways of life, and ideas in the modern world... or maybe just once you get a (humdrum or monotonous) job.
fácilmente un debut tipo obra maestra bajo el estándar artístico (o sea películas del cine arte): con actores de calidad, aún si estéril y no tan habladores departe de los papeles protagonísticos; francamente realista con un trasfondo pragmático surrealista, si se le puede decir así, como en las otras obras de Haneke. Haneke siendo un autor de cine latente (esto fue lanzado a sus 47 años), pero también como un crítico cinemático con experiencia de forma preventiva explica más o menos algunas de las decisiones agudas y únicas bajo la dirección. También puede ser intrigante (aunque un poco deprimente y triste) a observar, cuando se trata del desarrollo de los personajes; y es más bien desolador, nihilista, y filosófico, pero no más que las otras pelis de Haneke con temas similares y con la misma dirección clínica por decir. lo vi cuando era un poco joven y antes de que se popularizara (y fuera escrito sobre) y no tenía ni idea de lo que acababa de terminar de ver. sin embargo, llega a ser más relevante y palpablemente cínica con madurez, especialmente dado el creciente intercambio de la información (rápidamente desgastada), las formas de vida, y de las ideas en el mundo moderno ... o quizá en cuento ya tengas jale (y se vuelve aburrido o monótono).
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The Seventh Continent was Michael Haneke and he has made quite a film. The film explores a story of this typical middle-class family who goes through the same routine everyday, with only very little change in their daily life. This is a theme that has been touched in many films and I have seen so many, that I'm rarely left surprised anymore. This film surprised me as it goes where one would think it would go, but then things start to get deeper, and there is much more to it than the images we are watching. It's a film that would benefit repeated viewings, because the director doesn't leave us with any answers, and only minor clues in explaining the film's intentions. I felt the film's pacing was a little too drawn out here for my liking, as it doesn't take the length that this film gave in order to deliver the scene's message and themes. If things were cut down by just a quarter of the scenes' length then this would have been near perfect. The film's cinematography was interesting as we are always left as an observer, and at times we are not even observing the characters, instead we observe their actions. The director wants us to not be emotionally attached to these people, and only define them by their actions rather than their emotional and psychological intentions. The only time that we ever get a "connection" with the characters is when they read out their letters to their loved ones, but by the end of the film I started to realise that it was also meant to be for us; having us believe the facade that they have created for themselves. The film's score was something I never really payed attention to as I was too busy trying to figure out Haneke's intentions. When I write my full review for this after a second viewing, whenever that may be, I would go into more detail about more aspects of the film. The film's acting isn't something I can really note and critique as Haneke shows us very little of it, but maybe during my second viewing, I'm able to understand and review it more comprehensively. The Seventh Continent is a film that requires quite a bit of attention as it's message and intentions run so deep that we may lose grasp of it, the moment we let ourselves be distracted.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
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