Michael Haneke

Latest Articles

Review: Dogtooth

Both absurd and creepy
Home schooling takes a hit in Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos's bizarre, chilling parable.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 24, 2011

Hollywood cashes in on girl power
One of the more satisfying moments in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) occurs when 13-year-old Hermione (Emma Watson) unloads a right hook that staggers the villainous Malfoy. “That felt good,” she says, pleased with herself. “Not good,” offers Ron (Rupert Grint). “Brilliant!”
By PETER KEOUGH | April 12, 2010

Oscar predictions 2010: Locker is a lock

Bigelow, Bullock, and Bridges also will win gold
Except for some pipe-dream scenarios in which the 10-nominee/weighted-voting system could turn out a victory for Inglourious Basterds or some other dark horse, everyone concedes that this year's winner for Best Picture and just about every other significant award is — The Hurt Locker ! How did this happen?
By PETER KEOUGH | March 08, 2010

Review: The White Ribbon

Children of the götterdämmerung: Shades of gray in Michael Haneke's White Ribbon
The White Ribbon starts with a black screen and an old man's voice (Ernst Jacobi, who played Hitler in Jan Troell's Hamsun and in a BBC mini-series) relating a series of mysterious accidents and crimes that occurred in the German village where he was a schoolteacher the year before the outbreak of World War I.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 13, 2010

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 04, 2010

Cannes goods

Tarantino, Antichrist , and a well-lit genitalia show; why the French film festival is like no other
Quick — name a world-class film-festival administrator willing to reveal that at age 12 he was titillated by the sight of clodhopper-shod Minnie Mouse stomping on Mickey's tail in a French comic book.
By LISA NESSELSON | May 27, 2009

Year in Film: Risky business

Films whose aspirations are more than Academic
Every year the studios hold back their best until the end of the year, but this year they let us down.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 24, 2008

Cherchez les femmes

Women dominate the 13th Annual Boston French Film Festival
Women have always dominated French cinema — just not from behind the camera.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 01, 2008

The most dangerous Games

Michael Haneke’s thriller still feels Funny
Although it has only one really graphic moment of violence, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games probably distresses audiences more than the torture porn in the Saw and Hostel series.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 16, 2008

The medium is the movie

In new films, truth is fluid — and controlled by the click of a button
In almost every movie you go to these days you’ll see another screen — a television, a computer, even another movie screen — within the screen you’re watching.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 05, 2008

The play’s the thing

Interview: Michael Haneke on the rules of his Games
A couple of weeks ago at the Oscars, the first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film to go to an Austrian went to the wrong filmmaker.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 04, 2008

Funny frames

The films of Michael Haneke at the HFA and MFA
The seemingly endless final shot of Michael Haneke’s CACHÉ|HIDDEN might have shocked some viewers into an almost forgotten skill: watching.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 15, 2007

Critical lapses

When the reviewer becomes the reviewee
Am I the only film critic with this vainglorious dream?
By GERALD PEARY | August 22, 2007

Comme ci, comme ça

No wave in sight at the Boston French Film Festival
The menu bops between feel-good indies and full-on commercial fare, with a few seasoned auteur numbers thrown in like rosemary twigs.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | July 10, 2007

The good Germans

Breaking through to The Lives of Others
It’s 1984. The Ruling Party monitors its citizenship, its minute observations allowing the “others” to be categorized –– and persecuted. Watch the trailer for The Lives of Others (YouTube)
By BRETT MICHEL | February 14, 2007