Michael Haneke
I will NEVER forget the way I felt when I watched Funny Games the first time. I had never, once, in horror, walked away from a movie feeling guilty. Feeling like part of what went down on-screen was perpetuated by me being in that seat and watching it and encouraging it. It was the first time a director had pretty much fully pulled me into (and made me a part of) their movie.
I felt so dirty afterward, and actually questioned my adoration of horror movies after. Why DO I like that stuff? Why do I watch bad things happen to good people? Haneke was the first director to ask me and hold me somewhat responsible and I loved it. So I then checked out his back catalog and OH MY GOD, THE SUFFERING.
I mean, really, it is all suffering. Suffering on the levels we all hope and pray we never have to, but suffering made completely real and believable. I have yet to walk away from one Michael Haneke directed movie less fucked up then I walked in. They just tear away at you like little, invisible microorganisms, eating your insides alive. But if that is how his films make most of us feel, how does he feel? What do you think HIS brain is like?
I imagine it’s a place that somehow completely understands the act of human suffering. A brain that knows we are put here to take wounds and be beaten down. A brain that knows love is imperfect and life is cruel. But just for one moment, imagine what it must be like to have that brain inside you? It must be relentless. I bet the guy doesn’t sleep.