By apocalyptic drama Wolfzeit by Michael Haneke, as in The Piano Player, actress Isabelle Huppert stars. The Austrian director also disturbs his viewers in Wolfzeit.
The film, which was released in 2003, has recently been available as a limited media book edition. As Bonus material includes the making of, a behind-the-scenes photo gallery and an essay by film scientist Prof. Dr. Marcus Stiglegger included.
Wolfzeit – Limited Blu-ray Edition as a media book on Amazon
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That’s what Haneke’s drama Wolfzeit is about
Anne and her family fleeing a catastrophe in the big city and before the collapse of civilization. Their holiday home is secluded in the forest, so it’s actually the perfect place to escape the chaos, if it weren’t for the strange family that has already settled in the house. A confrontation ensues and from then on a nightmare begins in which nothing is as it once was. The Family history becomes a road movie through a destroyed country and, with all the oppressive suffering, also a horror film.
Disturbing apocalypse without sci-fi
Michael Haneke knows how to disturb his audience. The beginning in particular is reminiscent of his FSK-18 thriller Funny Games with Ulrich bother. Its limited Blu-ray edition with Mediabook * is still available from Mediamarkt. Here too, absolute horror awaits a family in their holiday home. What makes Haneke’s films so disturbing is hers realistic representation, which also works without or only with very subtle music. The characters don’t act headlessly, don’t make rash decisions, and yet they are unable to find a way out.
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Wolf time
Even in Wolfzeit we have one apocalyptic scenario, but no science fiction elements are used, which makes the material even more relatable for the audience. The world is similar to ours and as is so often the case with Haneke, the characters show the way again their inhumanity, towards one’s own species. Scott Foundas writes in his review on Variety:
[…] Haneke demonstrates deep insight into the essence of human behavior when all humility is abandoned, pure panic and desperation are the order of the day and man becomes more like a wolf than a man.
When Haneke wrote the script for Wolfzeit, it was actually still a science fiction film, as he first had to invent a scenario to describe a major threat to our affluent society, as he revealed in an interview with Austrian Films. Only through the fatal one September 11th terrorist attack 2001 The Western world became aware of how quickly a catastrophe can happen here too. Haneke rewrote the script and brought the action into the present.
It was important to him not to make a disaster film, but rather one that would also deal with it spoiled people in our highly industrialized world could identify. The viewer should feel that this scenario from Wolfzeit could happen to them at any time.
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