Lives Collide in ‘Code Unknown’

Michael Haneke has created a terrific opening sequence for his “Code Unknown,” one that’s intricate yet seemingly spontaneous. It quickly sweeps up viewers into several stories. A teenager, Jean (Alexandre Hamidi), freshly arrived in Paris, catches up with his brother’s lover, Anne (Juliette Binoche), in the street before he reaches her apartment. He has run away from home, a farm where he lives with his single father (Sepp Bierbichler) who expects his son to spend his life working alongside him. Anne, a busy actress, is sympathetic but tells him he’s got to stay with his father until he comes of age.

While Anne, who has given Jean a key to her apartment, rushes off to an appointment, Jean, frustrated and angry over the future his father has mapped out for him, tosses a piece of crumpled paper in the direction of a woman beggar, Maria (Luminata Gheorghiu), sitting on the sidewalk. A young black man, Amadou (Ona Lu Yenke), witnesses the thoughtless action. Enraged by Jean’s lack of respect for Maria, Amadou catches up with him and a hassle ensues. Amadou is arrested; the police aren’t at all interested in the circumstances of the ugly skirmish.

There’s no way of knowing at this point, but this ugly incident enables Haneke to pursue the stories of Amadou and Maria as well as that of Anne, a lovely, thoughtful woman, clearly a talented actress with bright prospects. We get glimpses of her at work on a creepy thriller movie, auditioning for a role in a stage production of “Twelfth Night” and dubbing what may be yet another movie. She and her lover, Georges (Thierry Neuvic), have precariously little time together, for Georges is a war photographer often on assignment and is just back briefly from Kosovo. Haneke has a sure way with actors--allowing them to seem to be living rather than acting their roles--that matches his ability to capture the rhythms and routines of everyday life with a graceful, unstudied ease.

Haneke cuts back and forth among Anne and Maria and Amadou. The incident in the street results in Maria being deported to Romania, where she is happy to be reunited with her family and friends. Yet she knows that she will eventually try to smuggle herself back into France, where even as a Paris street beggar she makes more money to support her family than if she were to stay home. Amadou, we discover, is a teacher at a school for deaf children where his little sister is one of his pupils. Amadou is charming and sophisticated, but at every turn he and his family feel the sting of racism, real or imagined.

Haneke, maker of the recent and extraordinary “The Piano Teacher,” with Isabelle Huppert in the title role, has a lot on his mind, but he evokes rather than declares his thoughts. His observation of daily life in a great metropolis at a time of a proliferating multicultural, multilingual population with its resulting tensions is acute and suggests how limited we are in our knowledge of the lives of others. He has said that he also became concerned with the limitations of cinema, yet illuminates beautifully the lives of his people with an eye for the revealing nuance and detail.

He calls “Code Unknown” a collection of “incomplete tales of several journeys.” In doing so, he raises consciousness about how easy it is for us to ignore others or make snap judgments that have little bearing on what their lives are really like. To achieve this in the form of a most absorbing film is no small accomplishment on the part of the always-provocative Haneke.

Unrated. Times guidelines: complex mature themes.

‘Code Unknown’

Juliette Binoche...Anne

Thierry Neuvic...Georges

Sepp Bierbichler...Le Paysan

Alexandre Hamidi...Jean

Ona Lu Yenke...Amadou

Luminata Gheorghiu...Maria

A Leisure Time Features/kimstim release of Franco-Romanian-German co-production. Writer-director Michael Haneke. Producers Marin Karmitz and Alain Sarde. Executive producer Yvon Crenn. Cinematographer Jurgen Jurges. Editors Karin Hartusch, Andreas Prochaska. Costumes Francoise Clavel. Production designer Manu de Chauvigny. In French and Romanian, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes.

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