Michael Haneke: voyeurism and desensitization in film; an essay

A while ago I had to write an essay on the importance of Haneke's work and this is basically that republished and revised. Hope you enjoy some of my critical thinking skills and analysis of film.

Michael Haneke is an Austrian film director, known best for his unique style of filmmaking and his ability to push boundaries within the storytelling. He is an underrated director who focuses best on discussing social and psychological issues with the idea of creating discomfort within the audience. He has several critically acclaimed films, but the ones discussed will be The Piano Teacher(2002), and Benny’s Video(1994). His films show realism and portrayals of difficult subjects such as abuse and violence. Michael Haneke is an important director due to his effective stylized cinematic techniques that create discomfort in the audience over important social topics. 

In Haneke’s work, he challenges all conventions of filmmaking. He takes a lot of ideas from the French New Wave such as long takes, still shots and no music, but within his topics this creates rather an uneasy feeling. He often breaks the fourth wall by forcing the audience to confront the idea that they are watching a film, which sometimes tends to be jarring. He pushes the boundaries to what is socially acceptable by forcing us to engage in our own ideals and bias, especially towards stereotypes. His portrayals tend to be about class, power, social and political issues. By using innovative techniques and exploring complex themes, Haneke is able to create films that are both thought-provoking and emotionally resonant. As such, he is a vital voice in the world of cinema.

One of the ways he creates discomfort in his films is by the lack of music creating tension within his viewers. In the film, The Piano Teacher(2002) which discusses heavier topics of abuse, we follow a woman who is a teacher and who fantasizes about a relationship with one of her students which she ends up having an affair with. On top of this affair portraying a power dynamic within student and teacher we somehow are able to understand that the relationship of power is not between that but rather of men and women. Our main character Erika Kohut is subject to abuse by her mother her entire life, and she just accepts it. Her mother beats her, and talks poorly of her in order to keep her power. Psychologically, we can understand why Erika begins to desire violence sexually, which is an important issue to discuss. 

One of the many reasons his work on The Piano Teacher is fantastic is because not only does his use of silence and long takes create discomfort but within that discomfort we evaluate ourselves to feel somewhat voyeuristic, we are watching this woman’s life so closely, her affairs, her work, her desires and her abuse. When experiencing the effects of this film we barely even acknowledge the amount of violence, it tends to be sudden and casual. Which is the entire goal. With the majority of abuse and sex scenes completely happening off-screen with no soundtrack, is a technique used to create discomfort by allowing the viewer to leave it to the imagination which sometimes tends to be scarier than seeing the real violence on screen. For example, towards the end of the movie, after Erika ignores Walter for not wanting to fulfill her desires, he shows up at her house and beats her in front of her mother. This scene is nearly silent with only the sounds of Erika’s cry and the sounds of the punches. This scene is in long takes, so that we as the audience absorb every detail. 

Haneke also uses handheld as an impactful tool in his filmmaking to emphasize that voyeuristic behavior mentioned previously. In one of the scenes, Erika visits Walter in need to recreate a sexual fantasy.​​ This scene once again is a long shot, but at the most intense times, the camera is nearly shaky. In the two most graphic parts of the scene, one in which Erika is giving oral and another when she throws up in disgust immediately after. The camera appears to be shaking, almost like shooting a pornographic film, as if we the audience are the one participating in this humiliation. The handheld shakiness is being used as a reminder that we are watching a film and should be acknowledging it by engaging us emotionally.

 The Piano Teacher has been his most successful film in terms of subtle violence and its effects. But Benny’s Video(1994) is a close second. This film follows a boy named Benny who has grown fond of violence and has completely isolated himself from the world around him. Following Haneke’s methods, we have many long shots, still shots, and handheld cameras. We also see the use of naturalistic sound and lighting as techniques to trigger disturbance in the viewer, which have been shown to work in the past. Benny’s character is someone who is a sociopath as well as a psychopath, lacking any empathy for others. Once again, Michael Haneke has chosen a heavier topic that shows us the consequences of being desensitized to violence within the world we live in and how it is also affected by consumption of media and the advancement of technology.

One of the scenes in Benny’s Video that tends to be quite disturbing is when Benny becomes fond of this girl, Madchen, and brings her into his own world of violent videos. He takes her into his room and shows a video he shot when he was younger with a pig getting killed with an instrument to his head and the suffering thereafter. The girl seems intrigued and in fear.

Meanwhile the entirety of this scene is filmed in static shots and low lighting portraying the real darkness in that room by placing you there with them. For that moment, we all fear what Benny is capable of doing. When watching the video, the shot is placed directly onto the television screen as if in that moment; we are Madchen. When the video ends, he shows her the exact instrument used to kill the pig. He loads it and faces towards her in a way indicating to her to grab it, which she doesn’t do. This scene is filmed in a long shot showing us all the details of the occurrence. He faces it back at her, and she jokingly calls him a coward for not shooting. Suddenly, the shot changes from us being present with them to us watching them on a television screen, which he then shoots her, and she falls on the floor crying. She crawls offscreen and we, as an audience, are acknowledging our voyeurism as we hear her scream for an entire two minutes offscreen as we stare at a blank room on a television screen. Haneke uses the same methods as he did in The Piano Teacher, causing us to feel voyeuristic and keeping the violence offscreen. We don’t see her get hurt at all, not Erika, and not Madchen. Although, we are fully capable of making those assumptions, which is why that method is successful.

Another way in which Haneke’s methods completely work is after we experience a traumatic scene onscreen he makes sure that the next one feels completely unrelated within time, just for us to later find out it has everything to do with it. This works usually as a method to emphasize our character’s behavior and how they think. Us, the viewers get in their heads, as we understand they are unbothered by this violence. When we watch Erika in The Piano Teacher get into fistfights with her mother violently onscreen. We are taking that scene in, which then ends abruptly with no falling action. In the next scene, we see her and her mother both drinking coffee, conversing, or watching television. This functions in a way that sets that relationship. It helps us understand what their dynamics are by making us feel desensitized to it. Same in Benny’s Video, after he kills Madchen the scene once again ends abruptly and next we see him in the kitchen in daylight eating yogurt, not even related that these two scenes happened minutes from each other, but we are once reminded when there's an abrupt scene of the bloody sheets he flips over.

Michael Haneke is has an ability to push boundaries in his storytelling by using film techniques such as sound design, static shots, long shots and lighting. He makes films that are social and political that break conventional cinema by creating discomfort in his audience so that they can face these problems head first. He is extremely political and very underrated. Haneke’s work will be influential as it also feels timeless, due to his attention to human nature and social problems.