France/Germany/Romania 2000
Directed by
Michael Haneke
117 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
Code Unknown
One of the more disappointing qualities of Hollywood is the way in which it reduces life to a tidy linear narrative. Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown does not give us that illusion but rather, as its sub-title indicates, follows “incomplete stories of various journeys”.
Juliette Binoche plays Anne, a Parisian actress who is in the middle of shooting a film and is more-or-less the pivotal character. The main subject of the film is however, modern urban life, which Haneke deftly shows through those various lives with which Anne, sometimes knowingly, sometimes obliviously, intersects – from her war-photographer boyfriend Georges (Thierry Neuvic) to Eastern European beggars and West African immigrants to a group of deaf children learning drumming. Using the tapestry-of-life approach, the film is episodic with no single narrative but works effectively to paint a portrait of life in probably any modern Westernized city, with Binoche giving a fine, warmly human performance.
DVD Extras: Theatrical trailer and teasers
Available from: Madman
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