Happy End
classified 15 SPlease note: This was screened in Dec 2017
Michael Haneke (Amour, The White Ribbon) returns with a biting satire on bourgeois family values in a sort of semi-sequel to his Palme d'Or winner Amour.
Set in Calais, it focuses on the wealthy, neurotic and self obsessed Laurent family. Anne (Isabelle Huppert) has taken over the family business, her ailing father (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is constantly looking for a way out and her doctor brother (Mathieu Kassovitz) is getting reacquainted with his teenage daughter (Fantine Harduin) after his ex-wife mysteriously overdoses. Trouble is brewing, however, as a series of backstabbings threaten to tear the family apart, and they fail to notice a new arrival has a secret of her own...
Happy End bears all the hallmarks of Haneke's style: pairing pitch-black humour with chillingly precise direction, it's proof - if we ever needed it - that he remains one of cinema's true visionaries.