Cinema
The Seventh Continent
Der siebente Kontinent
Michael Haneke · 1989
Synopsis
The late eighties, in an Austrian city. Georg, an engineer, Anna, an optician, and their little daughter Evi lead an ordered life: the alarm clock, the car wash, the supermarket, dinner, television. The same gestures recur from one year to the next, filmed in close-up; the little girl pretends to be blind at school, and an Australian beach recurs on a poster. After three years, the family carefully prepares a great change.
Context
Written with Johanna Teicht and produced by Wega Film, the film was shown at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in May 1989 and opens the sequence that its author called the trilogy of emotional glaciation, completed in 1992 and 1994. Dieter Berner and Birgit Doll play the couple. The scene in which the money is destroyed is the one that shocked most: Haneke had predicted to his producer that audiences would not be able to bear it. The film does not explain what it shows.
Who it is for
One hundred and four minutes broken down into gestures, in which one sees hands and objects for a long time. The film neither consoles nor concludes.
Prizes and reception
Bronze Leopard at the Locarno festival in 1989, and prize for the best use of music and sound at the Ghent festival.
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