Two and a half hours of self-indulgent dullness

Rating: 5/10 (31 October 2009)

Granted, the cinematography is breathtaking (and in b&w to boot!), what with the waving corn fields, the snowed landscapes, the oh so blond, so abused, so good-ole German children. And how about the oh so true-to-detail interiors?!
Conceited apprentice sorcerer Haneke thinks he has learned all the tricks from master Bergman, "und nun sollen (Bergman's) Geister / auch nach (Haneke's) Willen leben." But, alas, in this film the spirits never come to life!
For nearly three hours, we are exposed to a recurring series of genre paintings accompanied by trite dialogues that are probably supposed to reflect an atmosphere of repression, hypocrisy, social injustice and what-not, but remain shallow common places at worst and hilarious parody at best. A number of acts of violence thrown in now and then are arguably intended to provide a hint of a plot and -for the same price- conjure up the lurking-presence-of-evil-inherent-to-human-nature, but both their cinematic and philosophical potential remain undeveloped in the scorching light of the director's self-loving drive to show us how Germany really looked like.
Haneke has no doubt read his Fontane and his Thomas Mann too. He probably expects his audience to have done the same and be ready in advance to put him in the same set, which he seems to get away with, if the ratings are anything to go by.