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Code Unknown (2000)

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From Time Out Film Guide

Where Haneke's earlier 71 Fragments... traced a web of seemingly unconnected events leading up to a catastrophe, this takes the reverse tack of following the destinies of diverse characters witness to one seemingly inconsequential action - a disaffected youth tossing a paper wrapper into the lap of a Romanian woman begging on the Boulevard St Germain. It's a rewarding strategy, delving into the lives of an actress, her war-photographer lover, his brother and father, an African music teacher and his family, and the beggar and her compatriots, to produce a multi-perspective portrait of Western Europe as a society predicated on lies, inequality and communication breakdown. Nothing hugely original in that conclusion, perhaps, but the method is both lucid and dramatically compelling. Scenes here like Binoche being terrorised on the Métro while other passengers pretend not to notice are spinechillingly authentic. Moreover, despite the film's Bressonian rigours, its emotional force should finally give the lie to Haneke's reputation as a coldly academic film-maker.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on May 22 2008 13:16 hooray for mr.hanekes brilliant code

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on May 22 2008 13:15 code broken on hanekes cinematic brilliance and social bigotry-haneke always works in triads or so i perceeive,here we are introduced directly to the concept of communication or the rather lack of it in the form of a class of deaf -mute kids trying to reach out to each other,but then it assumes a dramatic parody in an intelligent mode on the contemporary european culture of melting pots ,what we see are real people like us -familiar themes though ugly and unwanted but happenning in our sight and hearing,juxtaposed on images of media from kosovo and kabul.this then becomes both a mockery of human values as they are in their unjust,poetic licence as well as a satire on race and behaviour.
the central scene is played as hamidi-a french white youth tosses waste paper into the lap of a romanian beggar, amadou-a muslim youth from mali[an african music teacher]chides and confronts him-with binoche intervening to stop the fight ,the travesty ensues as law arrives and arrests the beggar woman and the african moralist who wants hamidi to apologise to the beggar woman .
this then gives mr.haneke a solid reason to divulge into the lives of the chic actress ,the muslim black youth and the romanian woman .
we see the cesspool modern europe has become with broken human rights strewn all over where victims become agressors and perpetrators win in public .
neuvic is binoch's boyfriend ,their real -life argument in a super-market is a delight to watch ,binoche being harassed on the metro by a disgruntled white hating arab boy is horrific with no one but a middle aged arab man intervening ,
neuvic covering his story in kosovo and kabul become more expansive to take us into the conflict zones of human massacres.
but the victory belongs to haneke as he brings about the amalgamation of multiple cultures ,behaviours and prejudices in a moral story which explores whether justice is still an honorourable code in our social milieu .
unfortunately for all of us except the totally naive the answer is unkown as mentioned in the title.
the music with the martial drumming ,the walk on boulevard st.germain and the metro ride are captured by the camera in the most creatively captivating manner possible and the tale of mis-communication and social bigotry in today's tenchnically enlightened and human right concious society becomes a masterwork on present day human behaviour in everyday life .
a code you all need to explore to divulge into your own truth -haneke is indeed a wise man or even a genius .
usman khawaja
- jbz7879

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