Main Cast: Juliette Binoche, Luminita Gheorghiu, Hélène Diarra
Release Year: 2000
Country: FR
Run Time: 118 minutes
Plot
German-born filmmaker Michael Haneke continues the bleak, formalist experimentation of his 1994 breakthrough 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance with this similarly fragmented tale of racism, intolerance, and hatred in modern-day Paris. The focus of the narrative is split between three sets of people: the French actress Anne (Juliette Binoche), her husband and in-laws; a Romanian woman, Maria (Luminita Gheorghiu), who struggles to raise money for her family back home; and Amadou (Ona Lu Yenke), a teacher for the deaf who is at odds with his resolute African clan. The catalyst for the stories begins on a streetcorner, where Anne's brother-in-law Jean (Alexandre Hamadi) insults Maria, who is begging for change; incensed, Amadou picks a fight with Jean, resulting in negative repercussions for the triptych of protagonists. Throughout, Haneke punctuates the action with his unique editing and use of sound. After its Cannes debut, Code Inconnu made its North American premiere at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Review
A humanist screed wrapped in a formalist adventure, Michael Haneke's Code Unknown represents a great leap forward for Austria's best-known contemporary filmmaker. This audacious near-masterpiece finds Haneke again casting an Olympian eye on his fellow man. Where his previous film, Funny Games, was conspicuously devoid of empathy, Code Unknown is decidedly more generous in outlook and tempered in tone. The movie's departure point is a bravura nine-minute tracking shot that links together the main characters on a busy Paris street. From there, the story lines branch off into fragmented bits -- perhaps a visual equivalent for the fractured world Haneke seeks to understand. As can be expected from the media-obsessed Haneke, the movie explores the power of images and the artist's complicity in perpetuating social attitudes. While such self-reflexivity is familiar in Haneke's cinema, what is not is the movie's poignancy. A contemporary global bulletin in its own right, the movie depicts a world afflicted by racism, xenophobia, apathy, miscommunication, and solipsism. Bookended by scenes at a school for deaf children, the movie all but explains its title, a reference to the seemingly lost language of kindness and compassion. "Have you ever made somebody happy?" a character asks at one point. It's a question this fiercely moral movie asks its audience as well. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys (Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages) is a 2000 film directed by Michael Haneke. Most of the story occurs in Paris, France, where the fates of several characters intersect and connect. Cinematically, the film is composed of unedited long takes filmed in real time, cut only when the perspective within a scene changes from one character's to another in mid-action.
The film features several different storylines, all of which intersect periodically throughout the film. The film's opening scene features a brief encounter with four of the main characters: Anne Laurent (Juliette Binoche) is an actress working in Paris, and she walks briefly with her boyfriend's younger brother Jean. After they part, Jean throws a piece of garbage at Maria, a homeless woman sitting on the side of the road. Amadou, the child of Malian immigrants, witnesses this and confronts Jean. The two fight, and eventually Amadou and Maria are both taken to a police station for questioning. Amadou is released presumably shortly after, though we learn that he was held, beaten and shamed, but Maria is deported to her native Romania. She reconnects with her family there, but before long returns to Paris again, only to find herself homeless on the same street at the film's end.
Code Unknown received the Golden Palm award nomination at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.[1] Cinematographer Jürges was nominated for the "Golden Frog" at the Camerimage awards.
…Und was Kommt Danach? •After Liverpool •Sperrmüll •Drei Wege zum See •Lemminge, Teil 1 Arkadien •Lemminge, Teil 2 Verletzungen •Variationen •Wer war Edgar Allan? •Fraulein •Nachruf für einen Mörder •Die Rebellion •Das Schloß
