The Glaciation Trilogy Directed by Michael Haneke from the Perspective of the Theories of Jean Baudrillard

Abstract

As one of the most celebrated film auteurs of contemporary European cinemas, Austrian film director Michael Haneke has achieved remarkable success at the Cannes International Film Festival. His films always represent the living status of the individuals in the postmodern capitalist society, showing criticism through the reflection on the media. The theory of the postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard is highly relevant to the works of Haneke. The key notions of Baudrillard, such as simulacra and hyperreality, describe the media-dominated postmodern social landscape, as well as reveal the tension between the individual and society in the post-industrial and late capitalist periods. This research is a cross-study of film authorship and sociology. It takes Hanekes earlier film works, the glaciation trilogy, which are The Seventh Continent (1989), Bennys Video (1992), and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) as examples, and analyzes the narrative, symbolism and audio-visual strategies through the theoretical perspective of Baudrillards theories. On the one hand, this research examines the Baudrillard themes of postmodernism, hyperreality and media alienation in the cases. On the other hand, it evaluates the cinematic style of Hanake and its relevance to a postmodern film ontology. Through the intertextuality between the works of Haneke and Baudrillard, this study is able to reveal the connection between postmodern sociological theories and contemporary auteur cinemas.