71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance)

Critics Consensus

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60%

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Total Count: 5

75%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 2,492

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Movie Info

This cerebral Austrian mystery, by avant-garde director Michael Haneke, will disturb those viewers with the patience to wade through it. The film begins with a grisly mass killing. It was Christmas eve 1993 and a 19-year old student inexplicably murders several people and then kills himself. The fragmented film flashes back to October 12 and then progresses toward the fateful night. Throughout the film many characters appear and suddenly reappear. A homeless teenaged Romanian exile roaming Vienna's streets and begging provides continuity. Each fragment begins with a newscast that functions as a surreal Greek Chorus One shows footage of the war in Sarajevo, and the other is a story about Michael Jackson. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Cast

Gabriel Cosmin Urdes
as Romanian Boy
Lukas Miko
as Max
Otto Grünmandl
as Tomek
Anne Bennent
as Inge Brunner
Udo Samel
as Paul Brunner
Branko Samarovski
as Hans

Critic Reviews for 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance)

All Critics (5) | Top Critics (2)

  • Michael Hanekes 1994 feature is an icy-cool study of violence both mediated and horribly real.

    Jul 13, 2006 | Rating: 4.5/5

    Manohla Dargis

    New York Times
    Top Critic

  • The film's Endsville, when we reach it, is almost an anticlimax, thanks to the masterfully orchestrated ensemble acting and the countless dramatic mini-explosions unleashed along the way.

    Jul 11, 2006

    Michael Atkinson

    Village Voice
    Top Critic

  • A panel in Michael Haneke's trilogy about gratuitous acts of vioelnce and their devastating effects.

    Aug 1, 2011 | Rating: B | Full Review…

    Emanuel Levy

    EmanuelLevy.Com

  • Segues between its various pawns before coldly, cruelly sending them to their execution.

    May 2, 2007 | Rating: C | Full Review…

    Nick Schager

    Lessons of Darkness

  • Michael Haneke's death-of-the-soul-of-Europe saga soldiers on with 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, the final entry in his so-called "trilogy of emotional glacification."

    May 3, 2006 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

    Fernando F. Croce

    Slant Magazine
View All Critic Reviews (5)

Audience Reviews for 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance)

  • Jan 25, 2012
    Based on true life events in early 90s, this film follows the victims ordinary lives, all of which are not connected, before the fatal shootout at a bank, and imediatly later gunman killing himself. all the stories hold interest, and some more than others, its from Michael Haneke, so themes again pop up here that you seem to get from him. The media, tv culture and violence, it works well, while not entirely suceeds but holds more than enough to warrant a watch and Hanake is a interesting filmmaker
    scott g Super Reviewer
  • Nov 22, 2011
    Combining the abrupt editing of Der Siebente Kontinent (1989) with Todd Haynes' narrative structure in the disturbing Poison (1991), we take a layered trip once more into the mass media surroundings of the middle class and the undeniable implications it executes in cotidianity. Simultaneous to Tarantino's roller-coaster of intertwining stories, this is a challenging masterpiece that divides life itself into little fragments where everything is mathematically interrelated in an endless set of possibilities while questioning the futility of violence. 97/100
    Edgar C Super Reviewer
  • Dec 18, 2008
    [font=Century Gothic]"71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance" is a semi-interesting movie from Michael Haneke which serves as an exploration of his favorite themes of race and class. On December 23, 1993, a man kills three people in a bank in Vienna before killing himself. To show that no place is safe from violence, the movie rewinds two months to show news footage of violence in other parts of the world such as Sarajevo, Turkey, Haiti and Somalia.(But what does Michael Jackson have to do with this? Or with anything really?) After that, random bits and pieces are shown from the lives of the people who are present at the shooting with a special focus on a Romanian boy(Gabriel Cosmin Urdes) who is in the country illegally and could have an entire movie made about him. But none of the characters are as intriguing and the movie comes to a halt during a prolonged phone call. And why does a movie about alienation have to be quite so alienating?[/font]
    Walter M Super Reviewer
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