Funny Games isn't like Scary Movie. Sure, both send up a particular genre of filmmaking, but Funny Games goes deeper. It isn't meant to amuse, at least not in the same way that a comedic spoof would. Haneke has a morbid sense of humor to be sure, but he also attempts to say something meaningful about the conventions of plot and what we've come to expect from storytelling.
One can still be thrilled even after the remote control sequence if they're willing to go where Haneke goes. The film already breaks the fourth wall repeatedly from the moment Paul looks at the camera in the second act. We know that this isn't reality. It's metafiction. The remote control scene is still in line with everything we've seen so far, but what makes it powerful is that it comes at exactly the right moment in the plot. It's the twist. The turn. The one thing that throws everything else out of the window. This bit of absurdity then becomes another point in the plot. A wildly daring and effective one, but still ultimately a twist.
I think there's been a rape up there!
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Degree7
10 years ago
But how exactly is the remote control in line with anything we've seen before in the plot?
There was no prior indication that the two robbers had supernatural abilities to fold time and space with an inanimate object. Haneke might as well have inserted himself into the film at that point, flicking the audience off for the rest of the running time, because nothing about that scene made any sense.
Unless there's some deeper meaning I'm not getting, but it was all handled rather amateurishly to be convincing.
~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.
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Goofy_Elfman
10 years ago
We've seen moments of fourth wall breaking throughout the film. The wink at the camera being the main one. This shows us that there are greater forces at play. The remote control scene is the next step of this motif.
I think there's been a rape up there!
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