[Film Club] Buñuel and Haneke

I can see what you mean, though I didn't feel myself that he was attempting to make a Bunuel film, of course he obviously will have acknowledged his work and he even referenced it. His themes are similar to those which appear in many of Bunuels films but I felt that he tackled them in his own distinctive manner, which isn't neccasarily better than Bunuels but you can certainatley see the differences. I feel that, having only seeing five of Bunuels films, unlike Godard he is not so intrested in the use of surreal or jarring imagery or editing as a means to seperate the audience from what they are veiwing and force them to attempt to understand what the film maker is saying, but he is more intrested in using it to show the absurdity of his subjects or their situation, or perhaps to intentionally attack a certain group or set of beliefs with his imagery, or more often than I think people give him credit for he uses surrealism to be surreal, confusing and beautiful, with neither its meaning or its beauty intending to be understood ( certainatley the case with Un chien andalou ). Bunuel embeds the surreal into his narrative, often his plot hinges on the surreal ( as is the case with The Exterminating Angel ) and the running joke in Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Le is integral to the films enjoyment and plot, he doesn't ask us to understand why these things are happening but merely asks us to take them as we like and to accept them as a part of the films plot or imagery and i believe that it is not always essential in his films to read into whats happening as the surreal events unfold but to pay more attention to what the events are highlighting be it the characters attitudes or actions.
Whereas Godard, whilst tackling a similar subject to that which Bunuel often does, does not intend for the surreal to become an accepted part of the narrative in the film and instead he chooses to uses it to great effect to provoke thoughts from the audience and it is often the case that what could be said to be mere visual flair in a Bunuel film would provide deeper meaning in Godards. He seems to use the surreal as a ways to symbolise modern human "flaws" such as the burning of an author or the neverending traffic jams and car crashes showing mans arrogance, misuse of technology ( and more importantly money, here car crashes seem to symbolize mans captalistic ways destroying any love for fellow man, causing each to crash his symbol of wealth and invention into the other ) and his disregard for others. Also it is notable that the characters in Godards film are aware that they are in a film and that what is happening around them makes no sense, this is again different in the Bunuel films that I have seen, as the characters seem to often be aware of the absurdity of their situation but can never explain it, whereas the characters in Godards film know why they are there and know that they are sunbects of study and are being subject to absurdity, whereas the characters lack of knowledge and their reactions to what Bunuel throws at them are often some of the most intresting aspects to Bunuels films and it is within these circumstances that he makes his critiques of society. This to me makes Godards film even more poignant as it shows society's unwillingness to acept it's faults and it's blindness to it's victims.

'Weekend' reminds me very much of Haneke's 'Funny Games'. What do you think?