71
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago TribuneJohn PetrakisChicago TribuneJohn PetrakisAn eliptical puzzle that comes together beautifully in the last five minutes. Challenging, disturbing and at times brilliant. [21 Oct 1994]
- 83The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe trilogy's conclusion, 71 Fragments, doesn't quite fit the glaciation theme, but it does show Haneke's willingness to experiment with the form and challenge the way audiences receive information. The film's radical deconstruction of various narrative strands questions the way such information is delivered and received.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterShowing that there is both rhyme and madness to seemingly unfragmented everyday life, screenwriter-director Michael Haneke has created a pointillistic portrait of terror, presenting a number of tiny, mundane incidents that eventually enable us to connect the dots.
- 70VarietyEmanuel LevyVarietyEmanuel LevyIntellectually demanding and non-commercial film should be embraced in the festival and arthouse circuits by film students and viewers interested in postmodern, deconstructionist cinema.
- 70Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonThe film's Endsville, when we reach it, is almost an anticlimax, thanks to the masterfully orchestrated ensemble acting and the countless dramatic mini-explosions unleashed along the way.
- 70The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisAn icy-cool study of violence both mediated and horribly real.
- 60Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesAmericans desensitized to senseless violence may find the subject matter almost banal, and the interspersed news footage of armed conflict from around the world feels like a rhetorical device. But the coldly telegraphic structure--a series of 71 blackouts following the four strangers to their deaths--yields some striking moments.
- 50Slant MagazineSlant MagazineFormat owes much to Short Cuts, but Haneke’s wintry vision lacks Altman’s sense of life overflowing beyond the frame.