“The Seventh Continent” (1989) – Michael Haneke doesn’t shy away from dark material. He sprints towards it. Haneke has made a career of capturing the shadowy aspects of the human soul and bravely displaying them on the big screen, including his first feature film.
The setting is modern-day times in Austria, and a small nuclear family – Georg (Dieter Berner), Anna (Birgit Doll), and their daughter Evi (Leni Tanzar) – fit nicely in society with work and school. However, one day, Georg and Anna give up on their lives, quit their jobs, cash out at the bank, and decide that the three will move to Australia.
In a way, this sounds like the future plot for the Wheeler family in “Revolutionary Road” (2008), when the couple (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet) plan to leave suburban American for Paris.
Sounds promising…until it isn’t. “The Seventh Continent” is a horror show of inexplicable and repulsive proportions in the small confines of one home. Haneke’s step into cinema isn’t a blood and guts production, but it carries ghastly staying power.
Haneke based his movie on a newspaper story, a fact that gives the picture even more gravity.
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 3
Dieter Berner stars in “The Seventh Continent” (1989)
Dieter Berner stars in “The Piano Teacher” (2001) with Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Huppert stars in “Heaven’s Gate” (1980) with Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges stars in “R.I.P.D.” (2013) with Kevin Bacon
Directed and written by: Michael Haneke
Starring: Dieter Berner, Birgit Doll, and Leni Tanzer
Runtime: 104 minutes
Rated: Not rated
