Benny's Video (1992)

Director:

Michael Haneke

Writer:

Michael Haneke (writer)

Release Date:

4 March 1993 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A story about a boy called Benny, who watches violent movies, including a home-made video of a pig being slaughtered. Soon after, Benny loses his mind and kills a girl and films the murder with his video camera. |

Plot Keywords:

Video | Pig | Murder | Video Camera | Beach

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Arno Frisch	...	Benny
Angela Winkler	...	Mother
Ulrich Mühe	...	Father
Ingrid Stassner	...	Young Girl
Stephanie Brehme
Stefan Polasek
Christian Pundy
Max Berner
Hanspeter Müller
Shelley Kästner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wolfgang Böck
Cecile Gordon
Alfred Köberler
Paulus Manker
Gerhard Schmiepeter
Susanne Schneider
Dietrich Siegl	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Benny's Video (France) [fr]
Bennyn video (Finland) [fi]
El vídeo de Benny (Spain) [es]
To video tou Benny (Greece) (TV title) [el]

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Austria | Switzerland

Language:

German | English | Arabic | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (re-rating) (2006) | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R18 | Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Vienna, Austria

Company:

Bernard Lang

Trivia:

Second part of Michael Haneke's "Glaciation Trilogy" also including Der siebente Kontinent (1989) and 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994).

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Benny leaves the phone booth in Egypt, the cameraman is visible in multiple window reflections.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 24 Wirklichkeiten in der Sekunde (2005)

Cold eye of the camera

A relentlessly humourless, quietly accusing and sad portrait of the modern bourgeoisie. Benny is a normal teenager. That's a very important thing to acknowledge, throughout the film. His monosyllabism and deadpan, expression-void face are familiar to us. Haneke is clearly tying this (and the rather muted content of his life, not to mention the drab palette of the production design) to his parents emotional absence and the substitute excitement he gets from media - videos and music.

So the story turns in a violent moment although Benny's attempts to assimilate his actions are dysfunctional (he can't bring himself to speak to his friends about it and largely carries on as normal). Seen in these terms the terse performance of Arno Frisch is ideal for Haneke, super acting. Ulrich Mühe's father is also a fine understated study of an intelligent adult boxed in by incomprehension. Angela Winkler as Benny's mother really comes into her own during a brief trip to Egypt, the one moment of respite in the film, where the cracks of despair are almost a relief from the stifling focus on the second hand image.

The film rotates about two short moments - the pivotal violent act and Benny's father's question to the boy about it 'Why did you do it?' 'I wanted to know what it would feel like'. Classically for Haneke, both act and response are rather equivocal although we understand that the boy's social disassociation within a complacent, bourgeois lifestyle has germinated catastrophe. A well-made, strongly moral but cheerless film. 7/10