I do think that our perception of reality is fragmentary, and in 20th-century literature, it's totally normal to not describe reality as something wh… - Michael Haneke

Film is an artificial construct. It pretends to reconstruct reality. But it doesn't do that—it's a manipulative form. It's a lie that can reveal the truth. But if a film isn't a work of art, it's just complicit with the process of manipulation.

Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.

All of my films constitute a reaction against mainstream cinema. Every serious form of art sees the receiver as a partner in the undertaking. In fact, that's one of the preconditions of humanistic thought. In cinema, this fact, which should be self-evident, has been overlooked and replaced by an emphasis on the commercial aspects of the medium.