Easily one of the most provocative, oblique, and fascinating directors of contemporary European cinema, Michael Haneke's debut feature, THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, remains a masterpiece of existentialism and eerie violence. A family of three, a married couple and their daughter, go about... [More]

Easily one of the most provocative, oblique, and fascinating directors of contemporary European cinema, Michael Haneke's debut feature, THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, remains a masterpiece of existentialism and eerie violence. A family of three, a married couple and their daughter, go about their prosaic lives in a mechanical fashion; Haneke presents their lives as barely more than a series of rote mannerisms--even sex becomes a passive activity. On the surface, everything seems perfectly normal, but the film hints at a lurking malaise: the mother breaks, inexplicably, into tears as they drive through a carwash, the daughter feigns blindness at school, and then, suddenly, without warning, the family performs a drastic act of violence. [Less]