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Cannes Venice Candidate?: Funny Games

Published on April 18, 2007

If Michael Haneke’s newest gets a slot in the main competition, I believe this would constitute as a first in the history of the film festival: a filmmaker presenting two different versions of his own picture.

The Cannes-regular, Haneke’s original 1997 version of Funny Games saw a German family be the victims of violence, the 2007 version of Funny Games switches locals (in place of the Hamptons) with Naomi Watts messing up her hairdo and make-up. Knowing what to expect (should make viewers gasp), and what not to expect (your standard, uninventive, Americanized, English-language remake). Warner Independent Pictures will release the film early next year.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).