Code Unknown

One of the less interesting entries in the increasingly popular ‘choral’ genre (Short Cuts, Pulp Fiction, Magnolia), Michael Haneke’s new film fails to do anything especially compelling or original with its various narrative strands, which results in watchable but inescapably dull film fare.

Rising actress Anne (Binoche) is walking the streets of Paris when she runs into Jean (Hamidi), the younger brother of her boyfriend Georges (Neuvic), a war photographer. Jean has run away from his father’s farm, which he is expected to eventually take over in defiance of his own wishes: when he throws a crumpled paper bag into the lap of a Romanian illegal immigrant named Maria (Gheorghiu), he is tackled by Amadou (Lu Yenke), a music teacher for deaf-mute children. In the ensuing scuffle, however, the police arrest Amadou (what with him being black and Jean being white), and Maria ends up deported.

Code Unknown then follows the various characters in some detail: Anne as she shoots a movie and resumes her relationship with Georges upon his return from an assignment in Kosovo; Jean and his father’s warfare over the farm’s fate; Maria’s attempts to return to France, et cetera. All of this marks something of a departure for director Herr Haneke: Code Unknown occasionally plays with old-fashioned and well-worn modernist cliches (blurring the line between Binoche’s performance in the film itself and the film within the film, and implying the impossibility of true communication between human beings) but this is hardly innovative stuff, and is about as enthralling as it no doubt sounds.

For sure, each of the segments (punctuated by blackouts in between) is impeccably well-shot, and when Code Unknown sticks to realism, it can at least hold your interest. The plight of the Romanian refugee is well-handled, as is the increasing desperation of the farmer who slowly realises that no-one will be left to care for his land or livestock. But most of the characters inspire about as much sympathy as Rupert Murdoch with a great gaping bloody wound, and it’s difficult to give a fuck about the director’s deeper thematic preoccupations when they’re played out through the actions of this sorry bunch.

Code Unknown is by no means the worst (or most pretentious) kind of Euro-cinema, but it’s disappointing stuff from Haneke, and only requisite viewing for the cast and crew’s immediate families.