Michael Haneke: 'The World Would Be Much Poorer Without Art'

Could you discuss then the difficulties of the paradox you've set up for yourself?

When you're on a conversation about ideas, everyone tries to bring it to a point. Art doesn't work that way. It's even more difficult because in talking about art in this sense, you kill art. So, like music, which is the art form most difficult to explain or bring to a point, is privileged. Because it's so difficult to do that. I just have no desire to bring things to a point. Otherwise, I would write an essay, not make a film.

But it is a medium that gets analyzed a lot.

There's a quote from Susan Sontag that goes, "Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual against art." That's very smart. [Laughs]

Do you read analysis of your films?

Yes. Not all, but I read the most important newspapers.

Do they amuse you? Do they add things you hadn't thought of before?

It depends. You can learn a lot from an intelligent review, even if it's negative. I said yesterday, I prefer an intelligent negative review to a stupid good review. But with time, it has become less important to me. At the beginning, it's very important to your career. Of course there are some critics whose reviews I seek out.

Anyone you'd like to name?

American, I can't say. I read European reviewers.

Is validation at Cannes important to you?

Every director who brings his film to Cannes wants to win the Palme d'Or. So I had all the other prizes before. So it was very good! Cannes for me is very important, because all my films were presented in Cannes. It's the best place to premiere your film. The whole business is there.

You're a professor of film at the Vienna Film Academy. Do you teach your own films?

Never. The students would like to discuss with me about my films, but I refuse. We do the classics. There's so many films.

How do you feel about other schools using your film as text?

It's very good. Just not in my classes. For me, it's a little bit embarrassing to discuss my films. I have to do it for interviews for my new films, but afterward I'm not very interested to see again my own works. I look forward, not backwards.

You once introduced your film to a festival audience by saying, "I wish you a disturbing evening."

Yes. I always say this.

How much do you enjoy being a provocateur?

That's not me being the provocateur. That's not what it's about for me. It's always when you put your finger on a wound that it hurts. So what I'm aiming for is that I put my finger exactly on that point.

Do you feel you have a responsibility to affect social change with your films?

I put my films in the context of art. No single film can change the world, but any film that takes the viewer seriously and responsibly, they all together might over time change something. Just a little -- make them more sensitive. Like any art form. Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci did not change the world. The world would be much poorer without art.

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