Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is an Austrian film director and screenwriter born in Munich on March 23, 1942, whose work spans film, theatre, and the written word across both German and French.
Haneke was educated at the University of Vienna, a grounding that preceded a career reaching well beyond directing into screenwriting, film criticism, theatre direction, and university teaching. That breadth of engagement across disciplines has been a consistent feature of his professional life. He has also taken on work as a film actor, adding yet another dimension to an already wide-ranging body of activity.
His films have been made in both German and French, reflecting a dual linguistic identity that runs through much of his output. That cross-cultural reach has brought him recognition at some of the most prominent levels of European cinema. He received the European Film Award for Best Film as well as the European Film Award for Best Director, honors that speak to his standing within the continent's film industry. He also received the César Award for Best Director, one of the most formally significant distinctions in French cinema. Beyond those awards, he was granted the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, a Spanish prize recognizing figures of cultural achievement across a broad range of disciplines.
The combination of German-language and French-language filmmaking, alongside his work in theatre direction and his role as a university teacher, points to a recurring engagement with serious, formally considered storytelling across multiple creative and critical registers. Haneke's practice as both a maker and a critic of film, and his sustained movement between German and French as working languages, are among the most defining characteristics of a career that continues to operate across national and institutional boundaries.
Quotes by Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke's insights on:
You'll see more violence in any television crime series than you will in my films... Art is there to have a stimulating effect, if it earns its name. You have to be honest, that's the only thing.
Even the most elitist director or author who claims that he doesn’t care if his works are seen or not, then I have to think that he’s either a liar or a hypocrite.
It’s a disease of critics that once they’ve labeled someone, it’s very hard to change their perspective. It’s laziness.
I’m far more relaxed with German. I’m a control freak. I like to know exactly who’s saying and doing what.
You’ll see more violence in any television crime series than you will in my films Art is there to have a stimulating effect, if it earns its name. You have to be honest, that’s the only thing.
It’s a fact that people who are in a weakened position, whether physically or mentally, have this perception of the outer world as threatening. Everything that is unexpected or unknown is seen as a potential danger.
If I’m reading a book that doesn’t leave me with questions, moving questions, that I feel confronted with, then for me it’s a waste of time. I don’t want to read a book that simply confirms what I already know.
I’ve never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television, I always did what I wanted to do, and if I couldn’t, I didn’t do it. It was a freedom that, these days, young directors starting out don’t have.
Never say no. It always depends on what’s possible. I don’t care so much where it is; it’s what I want to do that matters.
And I don’t believe that children are innocent. In fact, no one seriously believes that. Just go to a playground and watch the kids playing in the sandbox! The romantic notion of the sweet child is simply the parents projecting their own wishes.