Variations of an archetypal scene : the Paris Métro confrontation in Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown

Auteur :
ANDERSSON, J.

Description :
Michael Haneke’s film Code Unknown (2000) depicts an interracial confrontation on the Paris Métro, which the critical literature has tended to discuss as a comment on European multiculturalism. This paper demonstrates that this scene must also be understood as a variation of a string of similar interracial subway scenes that emerged in the New Hollywood era of American cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s. Reflecting interconnected changes in the American city and film industry, this subterranean scene constitutes a key example of a new form of graphically violent urban cinema. It concludes that the appropriation of this scene in Code Unknown allows us to evaluate his counteraesthetic in ways that bridge thematic and auteurist approaches, and that take into account the crucial role of the spectator.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Environment and planning. D. Society and space, issn : 0263-7758, 2013, vol. 31, n°. 4, p. 693-707, nombre de pages : 15, Références bibliographiques : 3 p.

Date :
2013

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, London, Pion