Happy End (2017)

Happy End 2017

I first became familiar with Michael Haneke when I saw Funny Games, a film so disturbing, well crafted, original, and so chilling. I'll watch it in its entirety one day. His films are both provocative and disturbing to varying degrees, so knowing this I simply had to catch Happy End while it was at Cinemapolis. 

Haneke's latest focuses on the Laurents, an affluent french family trying to deal with trauma and change, while ignoring larger issues happening around them such as class, race, and immigration issues. 

Shown mostly through the lens of 13 year old Eve whose mother has taken pills and is in the hospital in critical condition, she is sent to live with her father and his side of the family. She is a very observant young teen, filming most everything with her phone, and studying YouTube videos. She discovers her father having an affair, which opens the door to the personal secrets and true feelings each member of the family is trying to keep at bay.

Haneke evokes so much distress with so little dialogue. So much in this film is said with glances, long looks and sighs. The social commentary on the economic and cultural divide is not subtle, nor is Haneke's use of modern technology to show how we connect and view just about everything- smartphones, Facebook messenger, live tweeting. In one scene the grandfather pulls out a photo album, an artifact of a very different time in these characters lives.

There is also no score, the only music featured being played at a karaoke bar (I'll never listen to Sia's Chandelier the same way again), and other music played by the characters at parties or in cars. Happy End is yet another Michael Haneke film that will make you squirm in your seat while making you think.