Of Michael Haneke's volume of work, I had only previously seen Cache, so when I heard that a remake was being made of his movie Funny Games, I decided to watch the original. If this and Cache are any indication of what's in store for me when I watch the rest of his movies, then I think I'll be spreading them far apart rather than watching all of them at once. It's all very intense.

In case you haven't seen the previews for the remake, this is about a family who drives out to their vacation home on a lake. When they arrive, a couple of young men drop by and say they are staying with the neighbors, who sent them over to borrow some eggs. They test the wife's patience when they drop the eggs she gave them and accidentally shove her phone into the sink. While they are always polite, they get under her skin, and soon she is confronting them, and her husband as well. Crushed eggs and a disabled (by a golf club) husband later, a game of torture begins, and the young men have the family captive in their living room. The family's worst imaginings couldn't possibly prepare them for when the young men bet them that they won't be alive by the next morning.

Watching this movie was a very unpleasant experience, and that's what assures me that I'm not as desensitized to movie violence as I had thought. It also assures me that Michael Haneke knows how to provoke, both emotionally and intellectually.

I don't want to talk about the plot in case anyone wants to see this, but I will say that Haneke knows how to gradually build tension and misery in such a way that I felt terrible after finishing this movie. But, the questions Haneke poses about why we as moviewatchers choose to entertain ourselves with violence, make going through this experience worthwhile, in a sense. It's a hard one for me to recommend to anyone in particular, although I would recommend watching it with more than one person, and taking the time to discuss it afterwards.

Now, all I need to decide is whether or not I'll choose to live through it again in English..

FreeRice appears to be the real deal. From the FAQ:

If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Give it a whirl if you're like me and a little bored at work. It's a tad more productive than a Flash game.

Unintentional Humor in the "Acts of Thomas"