Before he made his first feature film outing with "The Seventh Continent" in 1989, Michael Haneke logged a considerable amount of time on TV projects. They certainly aren't the easiest efforts to track down, and are likely a fascinating window into the development of the celebrated director, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs, one of his earliest endeavors is now available for your weekend viewing.
Haneke's 1979 picture "Lemminge, Teil 1 Arkadien" (aka "Lemmings, Part 1: Arcades") has made its way online, in full, with English subtitles. Frankly, we don't know much about it, so here's the YouTube synopsis:
Lemmings is a two-part drama, made for Austrian television, about the fate of Haneke's own generation that came of age after World War II. The first part, Arkadien (Arcades), depicts the generational gap between 1950s teenagers and their parents. A group of high school students grows up in the affluent but morally restrictive bourgeois world of the Wiener Neustadt. The challenges they are confronted with end up permanently damaging their personalities.
Part 2 doesn't seem available as far as we can tell, but hopefully it too will pop up. Watch below.
