A movie made in bad faith for an ideal viewer watching in good faith. It would be difficult to find such an innocent now.
Still, the fact that it regularly crops up on lists of 'most disturbing movies' is evidence of our culture's ability to assimilate almost any representation of violence; and evidence in Haneke's indictment of that culture.
More will take exception with Haneke's authoritarian priggishness than the violence itself. And it's hard to shake the feeling that he's…
