Funny Games
Year: 2007
Directed by: Michael Haneke
Starring: Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart, Michael Pitt, Tim Roth & Naomi Watts
Runtime: 111 mins
BBFC: 18
Published:30/05/23
Directed by: Michael Haneke
Starring: Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart, Michael Pitt, Tim Roth & Naomi Watts
Runtime: 111 mins
BBFC: 18
Published:30/05/23
When I recently watched the 1997 Austrian home invasion horror Funny Games, I was really taken away with just how terrifying the entire ordeal was. Home invasion is not a genre I am particularly fond of, as there usually is only so much than can be done with that formula. But Funny Games presented a fresh take on the genre by introducing fourth wall breaking elements, as well as intentionally subverting genre expectations. So, knowing that Funny Games had received a Hollywood remake just a decade later in 2007, and the original film’s director, Michael Haneke, had returned to direct the remake. I was intrigued to find out whether the film would have the same impact on a second viewing, and if it even warranted a remake.
The Farber family, consisting of father & husband George (Tim Roth), wife and mother Ann (Naomi Watts), and son George Jr. (Devon Gearhart) arrive at their lake house for a holiday. Shortly after arriving, two young men, Paul (Michael Pitt), and Peter (Brady Corbet), who claim to be staying with one of the Farber’s neighbours, ask to borrow some eggs. It quickly becomes obvious though that Paul & Peter are there to torture and murder the Farber family whilst forcing them to partake in a sadistic game they have created.
Funny Games (2007) is a shot for shot remake of Funny Games (1997). Aside from using slightly different sets, the two films appear identical if you put them side by side. They have the same story, same characters, same dialogue, same runtime. It’s all exactly the same. So, what’s the point?
Well aside from the obvious case of taking a financially and critically successful foreign film and making it accessible to people who don’t like to, or can’t read subtitles, I honestly can’t think of anything.
So Funny Games 2007 is equal in quality to the 1997 original in that case, right? Well…not really, and I don’t think this comes down to knowing what the film has in store, but rather a case of some puzzling choices made when adapting a German language film into an English language film.
The Farber family, consisting of father & husband George (Tim Roth), wife and mother Ann (Naomi Watts), and son George Jr. (Devon Gearhart) arrive at their lake house for a holiday. Shortly after arriving, two young men, Paul (Michael Pitt), and Peter (Brady Corbet), who claim to be staying with one of the Farber’s neighbours, ask to borrow some eggs. It quickly becomes obvious though that Paul & Peter are there to torture and murder the Farber family whilst forcing them to partake in a sadistic game they have created.
Funny Games (2007) is a shot for shot remake of Funny Games (1997). Aside from using slightly different sets, the two films appear identical if you put them side by side. They have the same story, same characters, same dialogue, same runtime. It’s all exactly the same. So, what’s the point?
Well aside from the obvious case of taking a financially and critically successful foreign film and making it accessible to people who don’t like to, or can’t read subtitles, I honestly can’t think of anything.
So Funny Games 2007 is equal in quality to the 1997 original in that case, right? Well…not really, and I don’t think this comes down to knowing what the film has in store, but rather a case of some puzzling choices made when adapting a German language film into an English language film.
You see, the way the characters interact with each other is distinctly un-American. I say that as though I know what it’s like to be American, but you’ll honestly never see another American film where the characters behave in such ways. At their core, the Farber’s have extremely European sensibilities, which in itself isn’t a bad thing but why if this is now set in America using an American family are they not more American?
The dialogue is the real kicker though. It often feels like a direct translation of Haneke’s 1997 script, and so some sentence structures don’t make an awful lot of sense, and the delivery is so wooden a lot of the time. This is what I mean by the sensibility thing, the dialogue feels as though it was written for someone who speaks German. It’s often direct, fairly biting, and strangely cold, impersonal almost. Whereas that’s not how Americans speak to one another, because that’s not how English as a language works.
So, this weird sentence structure and cold delivery makes extraordinarily great actors like Naomi Watts and Tim Roth sound like they’re struggling drama students, not the world class household names they are. It doesn’t help that Roth’s American accent isn’t at its best here, with various words coming out in his native London tongue.
I had expected this to actually make Paul & Peter more chilling characters due to the weird line delivery and choice of wording, but unfortunately it makes them seem like bumbling idiots rather than the intellectuals they are. Pitt is also nowhere near as charismatic as Arno Frisch was in the same role, and so it makes me just long for those versions of the characters.
There’s also something so sterile about the way Funny Games 2007 looks. Whilst the framing is often the same it’s the sheer lack of colour depth that makes everything just look so flat and plain. I also found sequences that took place in darkness really difficult to see, it’s like there wasn’t enough light when the scene was shot, or it has been made darker in post-production. A couple of exterior scenes such as when George Jr. makes his daring escape are impossible to follow because the whole screen was just pitch black.
I honestly can’t understand the reasoning why this film was remade in the first place. I get the appeal from a financial perspective to try and squeeze some more money out of a proven success by removing the language barrier and thereby opening it up to a larger audience. But I can’t really understand why Haneke would want to return to direct the film if he refused to do anything remotely new with it. This could have been a great opportunity to make alterations to the fourth wall breaking to make it feel relevant again (I mean I’m sure he could have done something interesting about referencing the 1997 film if he had tried, making the 2007 film some kind of meta sequel), or at least make the film visually distinct in comparison to the original and thereby present a different experience.
As it stands, Funny Games 2007 is a poor man’s version of the 1997 Funny Games. Ultimately if you really can’t watch foreign language films then you’re getting the same content as the 1997 film, but because zero alterations have been made it feels totally out of place given it’s set in a different country. I can’t see this being as effective or enjoyable as the 1997 film for these reasons, so if you do have the opportunity to, I would watch the original film instead of the remake.
I don’t hate Funny Games 2007, but knowing what it’s recreating it feels like a hollow and soulless remake which is strange because the brains behind it all is the same guy as before. I guess I just hoped for more, but as with most U.S remakes of international films, there’s something just a bit off about Funny Games.
The dialogue is the real kicker though. It often feels like a direct translation of Haneke’s 1997 script, and so some sentence structures don’t make an awful lot of sense, and the delivery is so wooden a lot of the time. This is what I mean by the sensibility thing, the dialogue feels as though it was written for someone who speaks German. It’s often direct, fairly biting, and strangely cold, impersonal almost. Whereas that’s not how Americans speak to one another, because that’s not how English as a language works.
So, this weird sentence structure and cold delivery makes extraordinarily great actors like Naomi Watts and Tim Roth sound like they’re struggling drama students, not the world class household names they are. It doesn’t help that Roth’s American accent isn’t at its best here, with various words coming out in his native London tongue.
I had expected this to actually make Paul & Peter more chilling characters due to the weird line delivery and choice of wording, but unfortunately it makes them seem like bumbling idiots rather than the intellectuals they are. Pitt is also nowhere near as charismatic as Arno Frisch was in the same role, and so it makes me just long for those versions of the characters.
There’s also something so sterile about the way Funny Games 2007 looks. Whilst the framing is often the same it’s the sheer lack of colour depth that makes everything just look so flat and plain. I also found sequences that took place in darkness really difficult to see, it’s like there wasn’t enough light when the scene was shot, or it has been made darker in post-production. A couple of exterior scenes such as when George Jr. makes his daring escape are impossible to follow because the whole screen was just pitch black.
I honestly can’t understand the reasoning why this film was remade in the first place. I get the appeal from a financial perspective to try and squeeze some more money out of a proven success by removing the language barrier and thereby opening it up to a larger audience. But I can’t really understand why Haneke would want to return to direct the film if he refused to do anything remotely new with it. This could have been a great opportunity to make alterations to the fourth wall breaking to make it feel relevant again (I mean I’m sure he could have done something interesting about referencing the 1997 film if he had tried, making the 2007 film some kind of meta sequel), or at least make the film visually distinct in comparison to the original and thereby present a different experience.
As it stands, Funny Games 2007 is a poor man’s version of the 1997 Funny Games. Ultimately if you really can’t watch foreign language films then you’re getting the same content as the 1997 film, but because zero alterations have been made it feels totally out of place given it’s set in a different country. I can’t see this being as effective or enjoyable as the 1997 film for these reasons, so if you do have the opportunity to, I would watch the original film instead of the remake.
I don’t hate Funny Games 2007, but knowing what it’s recreating it feels like a hollow and soulless remake which is strange because the brains behind it all is the same guy as before. I guess I just hoped for more, but as with most U.S remakes of international films, there’s something just a bit off about Funny Games.