Article: Society in the cold light of day: the chilling cinema of Michael Haneke.(RICK SLYE'S LEFT FILM GUIDE)

The Seventh Continent (1989) is one of the most radical critiques ever filmed of consumerism and the societies that are suffocated by it. It is the first film by the great Austrian director, Michael Haneke. It opens with the shadowy forms of an upper-middle-class family as they are drawn through a car wash, chemicals and soap roaring over their car like a great storm. As they emerge from the spray, they pass huge posters with photographs of Australia as a tourist destination. Only later do you realize that these photos of escape are as fraudulent as everything else in this place of infinite acquisition and consequent meaninglessness.

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