FILM · 1997 · AT
Funny Games
- Directed by
- Michael Haneke
- Runtime
- 109 min
- Studio
- Wega Film, ORF
14 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (14)
- #001
Ulrich Mühe and Susanne Lothar, who played the father and mother, were a real-life couple from this film until Mühe's death in 2007.
- #002
The scene in which Anna and Georg recover and free themselves after the criminals leave their house for the first time is a single take lasting a little over ten minutes.
- #003
During production, director Michael Haneke told producer Veit Heiduschka that if the film were successful, it would be because audiences had misunderstood the meaning behind it.
- #004
Actress Isabelle Huppert was offered the role of Anna but turned it down because she found the hardships endured by both the film and the main character too disturbing to portray. After later seeing it, she regretted the decision, though she admitted she probably would not have had the courage to do it.
- #005
According to director Michael Haneke, star Susanne Lothar had to force herself to cry for about 20 minutes before shooting. He said the scene in which she is forced to pray required 28 takes, and that Lothar was left extremely exhausted by the ordeal. That weak reaction was what Haneke wanted from her for the scene.
- #006
Michael Haneke wanted to shoot the film in the United States with an American cast and crew, since it was intended as a commentary on sensationalism and the desensitization to violence in the American media. Budget constraints forced him to continue production in Austria, but he finally got his wish when he made the American remake Funny Games (2007) with Naomi Watts.
- #007
Director Michael Haneke said Funny Games was never intended to be a horror film. Instead, his idea was to make a film containing a moral commentary on the effect of violence in the media on society, a subject about which Haneke is quite passionate.
- #008
When the film was shown at Cannes in 1997, it shocked the audience so much that many viewers, including some film critics, walked out of the screening.
- #009
Three of the four main adult actors died at a relatively young age. The only one still alive (as of 2022) is the only one who is not killed at any point in the film.
- #010
The film's main plot (with some changes) and other minor details are the same as those of the Spanish film Ensalada Baudelaire (1978).
- #011
As of 2021, three of the five main cast members had died: the Mother, the Father and Peter.
- #012
Paul and Peter have been compared by audiences to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the mass-murderer pair responsible for the Columbine High School massacre. However, the real tragedy would not take place until about 2 years after this film's release.
- #013
The film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #975.
- #014
The car racing on the TV is probably a replay of an event in the DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, or German Touring Car Championship) series. DTM was cancelled after 1996 due to high costs, then reformulated and reintroduced in 2000.
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