71 Fragments

Last night I went to see Michael Haneke's 71 Fragments at Anthology. I was really excited and decided to take some notes (thanks D.Boyle). This is Haneke's 3rd film and it feels like the prequel to Code Unknown. You see fragments of urban life in Austria. The portrayal of solitude and indifference to other's grief. Of course there's social exclusion, displacement. We see it with the foster girl and the 13 yr old illegal homeless immigrant. I love how the kid becomes invisible and no one gives his charity -or gives a shit-, until he is carrying a camera on his neck. Why does that get him noticed? I could also clearly appreciate the cuts, the steady framing, the long one shot sequences and the lack of dialogue in some of the fragments. Another thing I notices is that there's stealing. In all of Hanekes movies there's stealing... Or invading others objects and personal lives. The use of news broadcasting clips is omnipresent all along the film, only this case it shows a lot of the Bosnian War.

There's also video manipulation (with the student that's analyzing his ping pong playing skills). All the mediation, the war on TV, surveillance and all these fragments that build up to show how something so simple as not having enough money to pay the gas, can make a youngster loose it and start shooting in a bank.