Michael Haneke is back with “Happy End,” and for anyone concerned that the 75 year-old filmmaker might’ve lost his touch, rest assured the result is nothing short of “stunning cinema.” The austere drama was well received at the Cannes Film Festival, and while we don’t yet have a U.S. release date, it looks like the movie is coming soon.
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert, Mathieu Kassovitz and Toby Jones are part of the ensemble cast in this dissection of the upper class, with the story revolving around the Laurent family and their dark secrets, which are all enhanced in one way or another by the social media age. That’s about all we can tell you because the official synopsis keeps things quite brief:
All around us, the world, and we, in its midst, blind”. A snapshot from the life of a bourgeois European family.
Haneke’s previous film, “Amour,” managed to earn him both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay nominations at the Oscars, so we’ll see if comes into the awards season conversation again with “Happy End.”