Like 'Elephant' released nine years later, this takes a look at the several possible reasons for young people and their bursts of horrifying violence, and purposely fails to provide any answers or reasons. This may feel frustrating to some as many scenes appear to be very tangential and perhaps they are, but it'd be dangerous to draw any conclusions from this film.

"Michael Haneke's death-of-the-soul-of-Europe saga soldiers on with 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, the final entry in his so-called "trilogy of emotional glacification."" - Fernando F. Croce

A less rewarding version of Haneke's better, later film Code Unknown.

71 Fragments is one of the clearest examples of Haneke's belief, and a belief I agree with wholeheartedly, that we cannot judge someone as we do not know their whole situation. That we view other people's lives in fragments and just see events rather than the whole of a situation. We can try to explain people's actions, but those explanations may well be wrong or at the very least are somewhat reductive. Fascinating, though the Brechtian alienation was pushed a bit too far for my tastes.

DNF

A great cure for insomnia. I understand the message that this movie tries to bring across, but it's boring as hell. Especially the table tennis scene. In my opinion, a movie is meant as entertainment, and this is not entertaining.

The least of Haneke's trilogy has a lot to offer, but the blunt themes of technological alienation seem to be the sort of thing Hanake would usually eschew in favor of nuance and contradiction.

Keeps you guessing, on your toes, even if some of the 71 fragments drag on. Haneke doesn't really have anything different to say this time, but still pulls it off so well that despite being told what happens, the ending is startling and surreal.

The weakest in Michael Haneke's "trilogy". Still decent, but it was a bit more confusing then his other movies. I found myself getting bored through all the switches between characters. Even though it tells us right from the start what's coming, it's still shocking.

Although by this point in his career it was becoming clear that Haneke was working according to something resembling a formula, nevertheless the puzzle-like quality by which the director invites the spectator to work things out for themselves is not wholly without interest, and a scene here and there is done very well. The critique he seems to be elaborating here is probably more interesting than in most of his movies, but strangely the film itself is rather less so.

unsettling!

Doesn't give anything easily to the viewer. Either its banal and depressing reality grabs you by the balls or you bore yourself to death. Give it a try. It is surely an interesting mosaic of a story, as nearly every Haneke movie is.

Haneke's methodical pacing and relaxed narrative style will turn some people off to this. I happen to love the movie. It's a movie that keeps you wondering where things are headed. We see a lot of different stories and a lot of different characters, and we wonder how in the world they're going to blend together, or even if they're going to. When the film is over, you realize how wrong you were to question things.

Not one of Haneke's best, but as far as a view of society, you could do a lot worse. All the stories worked well, although some more than others.

The large number of story threads keeps the narrative fresh, and most scenes say a lot even when there is little dialogue. Another bleak look at violence, repetition and loneliness in everyday life.

A film worth watching. Suspenseful. But I gave it a low score anyway because films from this period of Haneke (I mean The Seventh Continent, Benny's video and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance) somehow don't really capture me at a gut level. I don't understand why (Funny Games totally captured me, for instance). Maybe because I watched these three on DVD, maybe because I wasn't in the mood (i.e. emotionally unavailable) at the time I watched them.