Michael Haneke Biography
Summary
"Michael Haneke" (born March 23, 1942) is an Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television? theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work. Besides working as filmmaker he also teaches directing at the Filmacademy Vienna.
At the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, "The White Ribbon" won the Palme d'Or for best film.
He has made films in French, German and English.
Life and career
Haneke was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor and director Fritz Haneke and actress Beatrix von Degenschild. Haneke was raised in the city Wiener Neustadt. He attended the University of Vienna to study philosophy, psychology and drama after failing to achieve success in his early attempts in acting and music. After graduating, he became a film critic and from 1967 to 1970 he worked as editor and dramaturg at the southwestern German television station Südwestfunk. He made his debut as a television director in 1973.
Haneke's feature film debut was 1989's "The Seventh Continent", which served to trace out the violent and bold style that would bloom in later years. Three years later, the controversial "Benny's Video" put Haneke's name on the map. Haneke's greatest success came in 2001 with his most critically successful film, the French "The Piano Teacher". It won the prestigious Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and also won its stars, Benoît Magimel and Isabelle Huppert, the Best Actor and Actress awards. He has worked with Juliette Binoche ("Code Unknown" in 2000 and "Caché" in 2005), after she expressed interest in working with him. Another actress Haneke frequently enjoys working with is Susanne Lothar.
His latest film, "The White Ribbon", premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The movie is set in 1913 and deals with strange incidents in a small town in Northern Germany, depicting an authoritarian, fascist-like atmosphere, where children are subjected to follow rigid rules and suffer harsh punishments, and where strange deaths occur. The Cannes jury presided by Isabelle Huppert and including Asia Argento, Hanif Kureishi and Robin Wright Penn awarded Haneke's film the Palme d'Or for the best feature film.
Stage work
As a playwright, he directed a number of stage productions in German, which included works by Strindberg, Goethe, and Heinrich von Kleist in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. In 2006, Haneke gave his debut as an opera director, staging Mozart's "Don Giovanni" for the Opéra National de Paris at Palais Garnier, when the theater's general manager was Gérard Mortier. In 2012 he was to direct "Così fan tutte" for the New York City Opera. This production had originally been commissioned by Jürgen Flimm for the Salzburg Festival 2009, but Haneke had to resign due to an illness preventing him from preparing the work. Haneke is now scheduled to realize the production at Madrid's Teatro Real in 2012, which then will be managed by Mortier.
Filmography
Feature films
"The Seventh Continent" (1989)
"Benny's Video" (1992)
"71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance" (1994)
"Funny Games" (1997)
"Code Unknown" (2000)
"The Piano Teacher" (2002)
"Time of the Wolf" (2003)
"Caché" (2005) ("Hidden")
"Funny Games" (US remake) (2008)
"The White Ribbon" (2009) Won the Palme d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
TV films
"...Und was Kommt Danach?" (1974) ("After Liverpool")
"Three Paths to the Lake" International title (1976)
"Sperrmüll" (1976) ("Household Rubbish")
"Lemminge, Teil 1: Arkadien" (1979) ("Lemmings, Part 1: Arcadia")
"Lemminge, Teil 2: Verletzungen" (1979) ("Lemmings, Part 2: Injuries")
"Variation" (1983)
"Wer war Edgar Allan?" (1984) ("Who Was Edgar Allen?")
"Fräulein" (1985) ("Miss")
"Nachruf für einen Mörder" (1991) ("Obituary for a Murderer")
"Die Rebellion" (1992) ("The Rebellion")
"Das Schloß" (1997) ("The Castle")
Short films
"Lumière and Company" (1995) (segment 'Michael Haneke/Vienne')
External links
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Michael Haneke.
