In anticipation of Love, the forthcoming installment in the continuing adventures of Michael Haneke's everypeople Anne and George, I open up the general Michael Haneke thread where we might laugh, play and discuss the finer points of this golden-hearted cynic's work.

We've all seen, and reacted strongly to, Funny Games but what about his perverse tale of hope Time of the Wolf? Is Haneke a subtle feminist that positions Anne in various levels of opposition to the male-dominated systems of the world? Did you, too, shed a tear of relief when you finally learned what event gave his wonderful Code Unknown its title?

Let us add chocolate to milk in celebration of this man's work, both little-seen (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance) or otherwise (Cache). Haters are welcome because Michael Haneke would want it that way. He probably hates you, too.

I don't have the time right now to type out a thousand words about Haneke's work, so I'm going to begin by linking to a thread from a while ago about his masterpiece Cache: http://reelviews.net/reelviewsforum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=434&hilit=cache

Check it out, you.

Overall, I think Haneke is cynical more about the current state of humanity than he is hopeless for humanity. I think he believes we could be better if we would just realize it.

I've only seen The White Ribbon, which I blind bought on bluray about 2 months ago. I loved it. Beautiful imagery, phenomenal performances (especially from the children), and overall unsettling examination of the darker side of humanity.

I'm planning on buying Cache on my next round of bluray imports, and hope to see more of Haneke's filmography in the near future.

It's his most subdued work. Pete was right in linking to the thread on Cache: great thread with some fine-toothed combing of what I'll still call his best movie. That's a good follow-up viewing to The White Ribbon. His earlier stuff (Funny Games included) can be a response to American filmmaking and, as such, can be unforgiving to his audience. His second, more impressive period of filmmaking started with Code Unknown and features more realistic characters and less writerly hostility.

I love Michael Haneke's movies. So far I've only seen The White Ribbon, Cache and both versions of Funny Games. What else should I look for? Code Unknown?