Ok, am I the only person who watched this movie and had no idea they were planning to commit suicide? I only got the idea when they started flushing money down the toilet. That is actually a very powerful scene. Anyway, I was waiting the whole movie for them to go to Australia (I'm an Aussie living in Israel). This movie is *beep* if you're from Australia (Australia = death).
sharei was waiting for them to go, too. i thought they were just destroying everything so they could completely start a new.
and then i realized they were going to kill themselves, and the whole thing about bringing their daughter to australia was them actually debating whether or not to have her die, too.
when they started destroying their things, I was wondering what was going on too, and so did my friend when I showed it to him last week. I think that the way that the dreadful secret creeps up on you in part 3 is pure genius.
shareMy family decided to migrate abroad long ago and my parents made plans months leading to our departure. Some of the scenes from this film brought back feelings of that time including the big feast at the end and not being very open to other people of our plans to migrate. I vividly remember the scene which portrays the parents explaining why they choose to take their child with them on the trip. This was also one of the many questions my family made prior to our departure. I was completely unaware that the family was trying to commit suicide when I decided to watch the movie. The migration theme was pretty convincing for the most part until the middle of the film when other symbols started to appear. The signs of suicide were inevitable in the latter part of the film.
This is a powerful film in many ways. Seeing the film from a migration point of view and a suicide point of view has many differences but also many parallels. For many migrants a new land symbolizes hope and to this family, the Seventh Continent (death) appears to symbolize the same (from the world they live in). My two cents.
The seventh continent as Australia is something most remote, hard to reach for people in Europe. Africa is the same time zone, America is few hours of flight... but Australia has still something mystic, wild, unexplored. When someone leaves to live there, he might probably never return, even as a turist.
So, this is not Australia = death, don't be sad or insulted.
It is not so well known, but there is a much sadder connection. In 1966. a movie "Sedmi kontinent" (Seventh continent) was made by Dusan Vukotic, a first non-American who ever got Oscar for a cartoon. "Sedmi kontinent" was not a cartoon (rather unusual for him), and it was a story about children discovering new continent which was still not destroyed and polluted by adults, where children had a chance to live in peace, not caring for difference in color, religion, social status... So you see how heartbreaking can be comparing this movie full of hope to a brilliant but so dark Haneke's work. (It might be a difference in author's characters and attitudes, but more likely a difference between 60's/70's and 80's/90's. There is no hope left from old times, and you can do nothing but comit suicide when you see what has our wold turned to.)
I watched this without knowing what they intended. I figured something sinister was up when he bought a bunch of power tools, then looked up the street fearfully in case anyone was watching before they went inside. That was when it clicked, they aint going to Australia!
Of course, I've been watching Haneke movies for the past couple of weeks so I figured something nasty had to happen to someone.
I got it when Georg wrote a letter to his parents, but it came quite as a shock to me as well.
shareYeah, I cheated. I was supposed to watch this movie with the rest of the class (right after Robert Bresson's <i>L'Argent</i> -- what a double feature!) but I watched it later. By then, I had already discovered the 'secret.' [By accident -- I was printing out the articles assigned for this film and the first sentence contained the words "the family forms a suicide pact..."]
To be honest, there was still a lot of suspense. The people I ended up watching it with ended up being very, very nervous as soon as Georg bought the power tools. "Will he actually <i>use</i> those?"
I do wonder what it would've been like to watch it without knowing the 'surprise.' Oh, well.
Ok, when they were in the bank I was going along with the Australia story and living in Australia (having emigrated at Eva's age from the UK), I was thinking, well that will be a nice change and what the whole family needs right now.
The intent for suicide became clear when Georg was writing to his parents, but I wasn't sure that they would be sucessful with their plan.
I was also quite unnerved when he mentioned Eva and deciding whether to take her with them.
I felt sorry for Eva throughout the film. The mother tricked her into admitting the blind-ness stunt...with the promise of no reprimand, but promptly slapped her. When you see the newspaper on Eva's desk later with the story of a blind girl, perhaps she saw this person getting love and attention (by being blind, misguided I know). I noticed that there was something very subdued about her, as if she had been very strictly raised....be seen and not heard.
I didn't feel anything for the Mother or Father during most of the film. For Anna, only after Eva died. Now, when Georg is throwing up, I was thinking, good one, you have a dead wife and child, no money, you'd better bloody sort this out, for your sake you'd better have enough sleepers there to do the job. Imagine him having to live with what he had witnessed, what he had architected. He was an unpleasant, unlikable character. I just wanted him to get on with it by then. It sticks with me that even as his wife is leaving, saying good bye to her brother for the last time, Georg is in the car beeping the horn.
how did the mom and dad die again? was it sleeping pills? i know the daughter died from poisoned milk.
share**Spoilers**
I had no idea about the suicide pact either. as someone said earlier,I was just waiting for the family to fly to Australia and maybe carry out their emotionless existence there. But of course, Haneke comes in and says, as always "no, this is how it is, sorry." His films are brilliant. I have seen Funny Games (97), Seventh Continent and Benny's Video so far. Can't wait to see the rest!
and to answer your question, i'm pretty sure they were sleeping pills that they all ate. Well, the parents poisoned the milk with crushed up sleeping pills.
The daughter and wife were finished off with an injected solution of the pills.
shareI didn't think Australia was death - yes, in a sense, but to me it was more of a representation of an escape to a better place and freer existence.
"I am trapped in this body and can't get out" - Radiohead
[deleted]
I would like to point out how GENIUS the description on the box for this movie is.
This movie was recommended to me by a friend who said it was one of the bleakest movie ever made. So when I read the description about a family whose daughter pretends she's going blind, I thought, "How is this going to end badly"?
Obviously that plot point is pretty insignificant, and the real story is much more horrifying. The fact that the description on the box is deceiving and gives nothing away about the suicides makes the actual plot so much more impactful. I will never forget how I felt at the end of this movie.
That Is genius, I was thinking it was impossible to talk about this film without spoiling, but just concentrate on the blind kid.
There's a Confidentiality Issue there I'm afraid, Sir.
I must admit, when I thought they were still planning to move to Australia, after being turned down at the bank, while they were destroying all of their posessions. I thought that because I was expecting them to claim insurance money or something to pay for the trip there. I expected something would be afoot when they started to flush the money down the toilet and, quite honestly, I didn't see the family suicide coming whatsoever. I don't think I've felt so uncomfortable before when watching a film and I loved it for that. It packs quite a punch, huh.
share