Product Details

• Actors: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Christine Kain
• Directors: Markus Schleinzer
• Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: German
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Strand Releasing
• DVD Release Date: May 15, 2012
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0077ERLCC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,861 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

a keen observational thriller --Indiewire

a tight control of mood and style --Film Comment

unnerving --Cinema Scope

Product Description

Michael, a seemingly meek insurance agent, has a secret: he's holding 10-year-old Wolfgang captive in a locked room in his basement. Chronicling a five month period, director Markus Schleinzer reveals a tense portrait of how seemingly mundane lives can hide the darkest secrets. MICHAEL is a masterfully executed study of a monster with rich cinematic detail and unnerving insight.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping Story Of a Paedophile from Austria. June 17, 2012

By Tommy D TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

Sometimes I wonder at why I decide to watch certain films and this falls into that particular category. It is about Michael (Michael Fuith) who has kidnapped ten year old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger), he keeps him locked in a sound proofed room with uber brilliant security in his basement. By day he is a mealy mouthed insurance sales man at a local call centre, then at night he turns into a sort of special uncle / step father to his captive. He acts like he is the father and goes through the rigours of everyday domesticity with his victim as if he were playing out a normal role, like setting the table for dinner and doing the washing up.

Poor Wolfgang is clearly traumatised by the whole thing but is sort of resigned to playing along, probably in the hope of less brutal treatment. We never get to see the actual abuse, but this is none the less powerful for it, perhaps because we are left to fill in the gaps, it appears worse, if that was actually possible. The abuse is also psychological and sometimes I felt that was actually worse than the nightly incursions. I was in a constant state of anxiety whilst watching this. However, I was hooked from the word go but I also wanted it to be over, but paradoxically when it ended I wanted to know more; I am so hard to please.

Writer and director Markus Schleinzer has made an original and provoking film. The acting by the two main actors is brilliant especially David Rauchenberger, who was utterly convincing. Michael also watches violent porn and that gives him ideas too which though disgusting actually helped to break up the tension a couple of times.... I kept thinking though that Michael was the most evil character I had ever seen on screen, which is probably not the case but it is the raw emotion of revulsion that such behaviour illicits. To have been able to get such a reaction in a film that is virtually sanitised, up to a point, is a real achievement. Whilst I can not say I loved this I do think it is a masterful piece of film making. In Austrian at just over an hour and a half, this is not one for everybody. But if you like your films to be challenging, well made, acted and engrossing then you ought o give this a try. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars quietly chillingly cold July 3, 2012

By .fgd

Format:DVD

Michael Fuith was excellently cast. His facial features personified his mental workings and was perfect for the part. Man and boy expressed themselves in an understated fashion which made their inner states unnerving as we know and sense there has to be more than they are telling. Having to read between the lines pulls the viewer into the film.For some this may cause dissatisfaction.
There is nothing black or white about Michael. In fact he has kindness. But he has a perversion to supply. Nothing personal kid..Yet he is also an appalling creep. There is one scene where a song on the radio has the power to imbue him with normalacy but without escaping the sinister cast of his features. Creepy because it is a reversal of a socio-path demeanor
The boy child actor is convincing as one who must weigh acts of consideration against more wrong than he realises. The lack of his parents almost too huge to comprehend was infectious.
About 2/3 of the way I realised the scenario could go on for years. In which case murder would be the only way out to silence and dispose of the boy. The film is so set in a-day-in-the-life of mode it was a surprisingly disturbing thought on the abyss of the boy's silent anguish .

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars gripping, intelligent, engaging December 29, 2012

By Lacancan

Format:DVD

This is an intelligent approach to an important issue that society needs to deal with in a grown up way. I applaud the writer and director for finding a nuanced means to contributing to this conversation. Michael is an intricate and involving cinematic experience put to good use, to get the viewer to examine his own feelings towards the protagonists and ultimately themselves. It does not channel our emotions (heavy doses of hatred and desire for retribution in my case) nor give them a release but leaves us suspended until we communicate our thoughts about it in the real world, as I am doing now. I think the film will last with me for some time, it was a dark little corner of the world to visit.
I am wary of other reviews that interpret the film as concerning the suspicions of people around you, I don't think the aim is to make us paranoid, if anything to be more involved with the world and the people within it so that privacy and disinterest cannot be a de facto excuse for abuse.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Top-notch filmmaking July 14, 2012

By Dobbs

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I saw this film at the 2011 Toronto Film Fest -- it was the best film I saw that year.

If you're a fan of intricate filmmaking -- like you would get in a Michael Haneke movie -- than this film is for you. Yes, the subject matter is disturbing but the director's handing of it is not at all sensational.

My only complaint is I wish the title had been released on Blu-ray.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very, very hard to watch... June 20, 2012

By Andrew Ellington VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Some films are really hard to watch. `Michael' is one of them. It is not an easy subject to broach, and oftentimes when it is broached it is done in one of two ways; either too distanced so as to create a void of feeling or too intimate so as to create a sense of nausea and complete discomfort. `Michael' is one of those rare films that goes just far enough so as to completely own the subject without stepping over the line and creating something that made you feel disgusted with yourself for watching (`Mysterious Skin', while containing a stellar performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is one of those movies that I felt horrible for watching). This film hits in harsh ways, sure, but it is smart in the way it shies away from showing us too much.

`Michael' shows us a few months in the life of Michael. Michael seems like a normal man. He's quiet and tad reclusive. He works hard, excels even, and carries on normal conversation with co-workers. He functions in society like one would expect. He even goes on vacations with friends, drinking and flirting and `hooking up'. But, what his friends and family don't know is that when Michael returns home he is not alone. He unlocks his basement and lets out Wolfgang, a ten-year-old boy whom he has kidnapped and who he abuses on a regular basis. They eat together, play together and it is apparent that Michael uses Wolfgang for other things as well.

This is the story being told. The film basically carries along without a direct end-point and we're left to wonder just where this film is taking us. In the meantime, we are left watching some very uncomfortable scenarios play out between Michael and Wolfgang that are sure to leave a lasting impression....

What is so remarkable about `Michael' is that it really takes a step back from judgmental authorship and allows the audience to take in the situation and pass our own judgment without manipulations. We all know how we are going to feel about this man before we start watching, but it is a breath of fresh air to have him portrayed in a way that is not so blunt. A recent example of this would be Stanley Tucci's performance in `The Lovely Bones'. The way that his character is portrayed is so obvious that it hurts the emotional undertones of the film. Instead of playing a character who everyone would know is a pedophile, Michael Fuith offers us subtle glimpses of the horrors this man stirs up. Whether it be a childish remark or a sideways glance or a flared temper, these are all traits that one could easily ignore but that add up to tell a different story. As essential to the film as Fuith's performance is, young David Rauchenberger is possibly even more so because the way he absorbs the atrocities he faces help put a face on the crime and help derail our emotions. His performance is beyond stellar. This is such a difficult theme to embody, and it must have been difficult for young David to fully comprehend what he was depicting, but this young actor delivers a very convincing and well-rounded portrayal of a boy trying to survive a tumultuous life.

His line-reading of "the knife" alone made my stomach drop.

Markus Schleinzer is going to be a director to watch. Before making his debut film, `Michael', he was a casting director. His knack in that profession was seen in his key performers here, but he did more than merely cast the right actors. The way he sculpts this film is essential to the film's development. The way he lingers on certain scenes and the way he cuts at the right moment so as to deter us from seeing too much but allowing us to see enough takes remarkable restraint and control over his own focus.

My only quibble here is a few moments that I felt were too drug out and the ending, which I just wanted to give me a little more. It certainly delivered the emotions needed to sell this story's completion (I was shaking, I was praying, I was crying) but when the scene cut to black I was left wishing that it had maybe three more minutes, maybe even three more seconds.

You'll know what I mean when you get there.

In the end, I feel torn here because I want to recommend this and then again, how do you recommend a film like this? It is done in the most tasteful manner a film of this nature can be done, I think, and for that it deserves praise indeed. It delivers all the shock and disgust without crossing that line where art becomes unnecessary.

As a side note; I will never walk with my hand on my daughter's neck again. Read more ›