This essay argues that Haneke's Glaciation Trilogy actively engages the mounting financialization of self during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Against the backdrop of Robert Bresson's 1983 film L'argent, which features the relatively new automated teller machine (ATM), the study analyzes the provocative destruction of money scene in Der siebente Kontinent (1989), the pyramid scheme and financial strategy of hedging against risk in Benny's Video (1992), and the violent denouement in a Viennese bank that concludes 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994). While both Bresson and Haneke focus on money, the latter accentuates the increasing financialization of daily life. Drawing on the work of critical finance theorists, this study demonstrates how Haneke explores the ascent of the risk‐managing, financialized self as part of his trenchant critique of violence in the era of financial capitalism.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/william_carter/15/
This is an article published as Carter, William H. "Money, Violence, and the Financialized Self in Michael Haneke's Glaciation Trilogy," 94.1 (2021). Posted with permission