Der siebente Kontinent (1989) | Director: Michael Haneke | Wega Film | IMDB: tt0098327
Der siebente Kontinent (or “The Seventh Continent”) is Michael Haneke‘s debut cinematic release. An obscure art house release before earning a small but steady cult follow after Haneke’s bizarre and successful Funny Games, it’s the first in a set of three films the author himself described as his Vergletscherungs-Trilogie (or “Glaciation Trilogy”). Without analysing the other two films (Benny’s Video and 71 Fragemente einer Chronologie des Zufalls), Kontinent is an acidic and fiendish kick in your scrotum. Yes, maybe I’m not being clear enough: it’s a gut-wrenching exercice that will change your perception of art and hopefully, everyday life. But it’s not an easy film to watch. It’s slow, precise, and disturbingly clinical-cold. Haneke‘s dismiss of incidental music gives it a terrifying tone implying that real horror is within the confines of your home.
Anna (Birgit Doll) and Georg (Dieter Berner) live with their daughter Eva (Leni Tanzer) in a upper middle class Vienna neighbourhood. When I say “live” I mean “everyday-life-live”. They have breakfast, dine, go shopping, go to work and school, live a common workingman’s life. You know, could be your family, right? Excruciatingly you watch their routine. And I say “their routine” since I’m assuming the characters are the ones handling the objects we are being shown. Faces are avoided as much as eye contact is avoided within the family. Yes, you see close ups of different objects until you realize that neither Anna, Georg or Eva are the main characters. A clock, a toothbrush, a bowl of cereals, frozen broccoli, a fish tank… Their mundane existence is tedious, monotonous, unexciting, mechanical. The whole first act is a film about every John Doe living in any given western town. One day at school Eva pretends to be blind. Her mother, an optician, demands Eva to tell the truth (if she sees or not), telling her that she won’t hurt her in case she was lying. Eva admits to being lying and Anna slaps her face. Another crack in the paint. Thereon the family leads itself to an unpredictable and distressing final third act.
It’s clear that this people are unable to communicate their feelings but, what feelings are those? Caught in a landslide of mundane existence is there anything to feel? What’s the meaning of it all? Money, objects of routine, meaningless jobs, undetermined neighbours, solitude from emotional interference, worthlessness… These are words that can’t describe the coldness of the film. On the other hand, there are other questions being raised: we, the audience, are spectators of their collapse. Is it worth watching such a thing? Well, perhaps you watch it everyday and either turn a blind eye or deliberately shrug it off.
