Michael Haneke’s films partly alienate viewers by demonstrating that his characters feel alienated from their lives, cultures, and themselves, so one form of alienation breeds another.
The mystery conceit in Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon acts as a hook and alludes to the larger mystery of wartime conformity and dangerous obedience, which it partly seeks to address.
Much like Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Haneke uses the framework of voyeurism to push the audience to take notice of themselves within the narrative structure, to push the audience to wonder: are we voyeurs too?
