Funny Frames - by Oliver C Speck (Paperback)

About the Book

An incisive and wide-ranging study of Michael Haneke's entire body of work, broadening the scholarship on this highly controversial filmmaker.

Book Synopsis

Taking its cues from the cinematic innovations of the controversial Austrian-born director Michael Haneke, Funny Frames explores how a political thinking manifests itself in his work.


The book is divided into two parts. In the first, Oliver C. Speck explores some of Haneke's Deleuzian traits - showing how the theoretical concepts of the virtual, of filmic space and of realism can be useful tools for unlocking the problems that Haneke formulates and solves through filmic means. In the second, Speck discusses a range of topics that appear in all of Haneke's films but that haven't, until now, been fully noticed or analyzed. These chapters demonstrate how Haneke plays the role of "diagnostician of culture," how he reads - for example - madness, suicide and childhood.


Like several other contemporary European directors, Haneke addresses topics considered difficult when measured by the standards of commercial cinema: the traumatic effects of violence, racism, and alienation. Funny Frames is an incisive and original contribution to the growing scholarship on one of the most intriguing auteurs of our time.

About the Author

Oliver C. Speck is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. His scholarly writing focuses on the representation of memory and history in French, German and other European cinema.