71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance - Michael Haneke (1994)

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls)
From Michael Haneke

Quote :

This cerebral Austrian mystery, by avant-garde director Michael Haneke, will disturb those viewers with the patience to wade through it. The film begins with a grisly mass killing. It was Christmas eve 1993 and a 19-year old student inexplicably murders several people and then kills himself. The fragmented film flashes back to October 12 and then progresses toward the fateful night. Throughout the film many characters appear and suddenly reappear. A homeless teenaged Romanian exile roaming Vienna's streets and begging provides continuity. Each fragment begins with a newscast that functions as a surreal Greek Chorus One shows footage of the war in Sarajevo, and the other is a story about Michael Jackson.

3rd movie of the trilogy of "emotional glaciation"
Not bad! But defenetly not the same intensity as The Seventh Continent or Benny's Video
The main problem I had with this movie is the lack of link between all these people. Haneke, instead of concentrating into one familly like he did with his other 2 movies of the trilogy, shows too many people, too many stories. I found it very difficult to get attached to any of the characters and therefore to feel for their pain. Although yes, it is still the same dark and depressing atmosphere, but because of this, it lacks emotions.

Again, Hanneke tried to include criticism of the medias and their influence into our daily violent and sad lifes but some things I didn't really think they should have been included: like the story with Michael Jackson which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie

But the style is nice, the acting really good, a bit slow and minimalist as usual with Hanneke

A must see only as a conclusion is you watched the other 2 of the trilogy but could have been much better