The Josef Fritzl affair and similar cases of horrendous incarceration revealed in its wake have now produced a sizable body of documentaries, feature films and fiction too, of which Michael is a minor, rather puzzling addition. The 40-year-old Austrian film-maker Markus Schleinzer, whose first feature film this is, has worked as a casting director on over 60 films, among them Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher, Time of the Wolf and, most significantly, The White Ribbon, on which he coached the child actors.
The eponymous Michael (Michael Fuith) is a 35-year-old minor official with an Austrian insurance company, who keeps the 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) a prisoner in the soundproofed basement of his suburban home. Michael is a bespectacled, nondescript loner with a brother and sister both married with children. He largely keeps to himself, rejecting the advances of a female colleague, whom he physically throws out of his house when she intrudes.
The eponymous Michael (Michael Fuith) is a 35-year-old minor official with an Austrian insurance company, who keeps the 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) a prisoner in the soundproofed basement of his suburban home. Michael is a bespectacled, nondescript loner with a brother and sister both married with children. He largely keeps to himself, rejecting the advances of a female colleague, whom he physically throws out of his house when she intrudes.
- 3/4/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Cannes wouldn’t be Cannes without movies built to shock. Usually there’s (yawn) sex involved — bonjour, Brown Bunny! Antichrist-like degradation is also nice and will suffice. This year, for his first feature, Austrian casting director-turned filmmaker Markus Schleinzer methodically, balefully observes a 35-year-old pedophile (Michael Fuith) who gives the movie its title, and Michael’s victim, 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauschenberger), imprisoned in Michael’s basement. This is no Silence of the Lambs voluptuous horror show; it’s a matter-of-fact, daily-life horror show of “normality.” Michael goes to his regular job at an insurance company, interacts with colleagues, comes home to a tidy house,...
- 5/15/2011
- by Lisa Schwarzbaum
- EW - Inside Movies
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