MICHAEL HANEKES CINEMA

Wheatley provides excellent close readings of a number of films and crucial film scenes. The book as a whole could be used in conjunction with a film course on Haneke, or its various chapters would lend themselves to discussions in graduate and even undergraduate courses on contemporary European film...The writing style is clear and while it pursues a critical theoretical analysis, it remains free from jargon. · Monatshefte What distinguishes Catherine Wheatleys work from other scholarship on Haneke is her close examination of spectatorship and the consideration of the connection between film medium and self-awareness... In rich detail, Wheatley cleverly interweaves the narrative and formal aspects of Hanekes films with audience response and Hanekes ethical intention. Through analysing the forging of the amalgam of first- and second-generation modernist conventions, generic structure and the star system, this book develops a convincing paradigm for evaluating the spectatorship of Michael Hanekes films and broadens the scope of what is called (in the books title) the ethic of the image. · Senses of Cinema Both her exacting discussions of the films themselves and the even-handed, pointed summations of the critical debate around them are impressive feats...her succinct prose is eminently readable, even where couched in scholarly language. · Sight & Sound, The International Film Magazine This is a bold, lucid, fiercely intelligent book, a vital addition to the study of contemporary cinema by one of the UKs brightest young film critics. · Screen Wheatley has initiated an important conversation regarding Haneke and the ethics of spectatorship that will bring a good many others to the table. · New Review of Film and Television Studies Haneke stands as one of world cinemas most important auteurs, and as such his work demands the kind of lucid and rigorous interrogation provided here. This is an essential book - the real first step in