The Seventh Continent (Der Siebente Kontinent) (1989)

67% of critics liked it
(6 reviews)
86% of users liked it
(3,068 ratings)

Three members of a middle-class family are followed as their lifestyle slowly disintegrates. Nothing spectacular happens: it's just the dreary un-ending grind of a go-nowhere existence. The film's final scene emulates Fassbinder, as the threesome bid auf wiedersehn to everyone and everything in a… More Three members of a middle-class family are followed as their lifestyle slowly disintegrates. Nothing spectacular happens: it's just the dreary un-ending grind of a go-nowhere existence. The film's final scene emulates Fassbinder, as the threesome bid auf wiedersehn to everyone and everything in a gaudy, grotesque manner. It goes without saying that Der 7. Kontinent is not for everyone's taste. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: NC-17, 1 hr. 44 min.
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1989 Wide
On DVD: May 16, 2006

Critic Reviews

Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Intelligent, hard-hitting, nightmarish family drama that's based on a true story and told in a repetitive clinical style that reflects the subjects' anomie.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Haneke's impressive feature theatrical debut offers a chillingly bleak look at a family and its descent into barbarism as a result of alientaion and disengagement from life.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Confirms -- through its narrow portrait of life as unrelentingly bleak -- its own gloomy cynicism.
Derek Smith, Cinematic Reflections
A stunning examination of the effects of emotional isolation and the inability to communicate in the modern age.
Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine
Family kills itself, director exploits it for dour ironies. More at 11.
Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine
Michael Haneke could be cinema's Debbie Downer, if only he had any sense of humor.

Read all 6 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Stephen M

Bruising and depressing, the Seventh Continent builds and builds to a shattering climax with a sense of monotony that few have ever achieved. Its power lies in its ambitious decision to show us what has happend and let us draw our own conclusions, or make up our own reasons for why it… More
Bruising and depressing, the Seventh Continent builds and builds to a shattering climax with a sense of monotony that few have ever achieved. Its power lies in its ambitious decision to show us what has happend and let us draw our own conclusions, or make up our own reasons for why it went the way it did.

Cast

Dieter Berner
as Georg
Leni Tanzer
as Eva
Udo Samel
as Alexander

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The Seventh Continent (Der Siebente Kontinent) (1989)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Stephen M

Cast

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