Il tempo dei lupi

A French woman (Isabelle Huppert) and her two young children struggle for survival shortly after an unidentified apocalypse. This is a very different sort of post-apocalyptic film--it is very minimalist and dramatic. The most fascinating aspect is that whatever happened to the world is never explained or even discussed by the characters. The only thing they know is that uncontaminated water is scarce and personal belongings are very valuable. They are living in the present, fighting for survival. The characters are often devoid of extreme emotion during the crises they face in the film, so the viewer assumes that whatever happened that changed the world must have been graphic and brutal.

Haneke is an exceptional filmmaker and has quite an eye. The combination of lingering camera-work and lack of score create an uneasy tension. Some might argue that the movie is boring because there isn't much action, but I thought it was visually stunning. The movie attempts to be about post-apocalypse social struggle and power--including conflict between different nationalities and genders--but it could have been more successful in doing this. The acting is outstanding (especially by Huppert and the actress that plays her daughter). Even though she gets co-billing, Beatrice Dalle is only in the film for a bit, but she does have a "Betty Blue"-style freak-out. I recommend this to anyone who likes post-apocalypse movies and is interested in seeing a hauntingly realistic one.

My Rating: 7/10

Just saw TIME OF THE WOLF in New York City, and it is a complete pleasure. A very subtle film about individual and mass psychology after an unnamed cataclysm.

Also a cautionary tale about having plenty of fresh batteries, lighters, and a good knife, or knives, on hand (you never know when you're going to have to skin your own dinner; hey, call me extreme when that unnamed cataclysm comes around).

An added bonus: no digital effects (although I think they got lucky with fog one day, and made a beautiful scene with it), no manic editing as a substitute for storytelling, no facile heroics, no predictable deus ex machina...it will cleanse the visual palette. It stars Isabelle Huppert, but she is so naturalistic you forget she's Isabelle Huppert.

For an altogether different, but equally pleasurable, although more theatrical, yet completely underrated take on the unnamed cataclysm bit, see

A BOY AND HIS DOG. A dream of a movie.

As a grand fan of Haneke, I went to this film without looking to the critiques. I know that his "German rigidity" can be incomprehensible for the Anglo-Saxon and French point of view. But after one hour, I quited the film, that is one of the worst screenplays that I have ever seen, Haneke's abstraction that works very good in "Die Klavierspielerin" does not work at all in this film. Nearly all of the elements of the story has no context. The plot is more than abstract or far from comprehension, it does not exist. I think I understood what was he trying to do, but I should admit that it is a shame for such a great director. Haneke should have written this screenplay with an amnesia for the basic rules of dramatic construction. There are NOT any explanation of the events in the film. But even Bunuel or Lynch have to explain the events in their films. And they do so, that's why they are great directors. So did Haneke. But how can we explain the passage between the Parisian bourgeoisie and the third world? Haneke's "I do it, and it's OK" is just makes his film unbelievably forced to disturb the public. Haneke used to not to force the spectators to disturb them. That was natural, let's say existential in his films. Please see again "The Seventh Continent", "Benny's Video" or "71 pieces of a hazardous chronology". Those are masterpieces of the contemporary cinema. But "Les temps du loup" is just a complete failure. The fascination of the admirers of this film are astonishing to me. I highly recommend to compare to "German Haneke" with the "French" one. I wish to see a Heneke coming back to his roots in Vienna.

"Temps Du Loup" is probably Michael Haneke's most successful attempt at presenting his bleak outlook on mankind.

Vaguely set in a post-apocalyptic world, the film works both ways: a. at isolating various institutions and values (society, family, religion) outside of their normal environment, and therefore analyzing them more thoroughly; b. as an exercise in evoking beautiful imagery out of spartan and plain settings.

While the first is certainly no new ground for Haneke (the storyline is less complex than his previous effort, "La Pianiste", yet the scope is much grander), the second means that this is his most cinematic and elegant effort yet.

This is perhaps Haneke's least accessible work,which is not writing that his other works are entertaining stuff.The star Isabelle Huppert becomes some kind of walk on in the second part which makes me think that the movie would have been better without her (and using non professional actors à la Robert Bresson) This movie shows groups of people,leaving the cities (which we do not see) for... Nobody knows,a train is expected ,but where does it take its passengers?And does this train exist anyway? Several hints at the Bible might suggest another Deluge or another Sodom and and Gomorrah (the just men;a man uses the words :biblical simplicity) ,the station,with all his languages might be another tower of Babel,and the letter the boy writes to his late father has Christian accents (he really thinks his dad reads him from... Heaven?).

Like this?Try these......

"Black Moon" Louis Malle 1975

"Skammen" Ingmar Berman 1968

"Les égarés" André Téchiné 2003