Existing critical traditions fail to fully account for the impact of Austrian director Michael Haneke s films, situated as they are between intellectual projects and popular entertainments. In this first English-language introduction to, and critical analysis of, his work, each of Haneke s eight feature films are considered in detail. Particular attention is given to what the author terms Michael Haneke s ethical cinema and the unique impact of these films upon their audiences.

Drawing on the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Stanley Cavell, Catherine Wheatley introduces a new way of marrying film and moral philosophy, which explicitly examines the ethics of the film viewing experience. Haneke s films offer the viewer great freedom whilst simultaneously imposing a considerable burden of responsibility. How Haneke achieves this break with more conventional spectatorship models, and what its far-reaching implications are for film theory in general, constitute the principal subject of this book.