Benny's Video
1992 Directed by Michael Haneke
Synopsis
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.
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Continuing on with Haneke's "Glaciation Trilogy", where Haneke continues to ramp up his obsession with alienation in the modern world to extremes, comes the second in the trilogy Benny's Video. This is a much more heavy-handed passive aggressive attack on modern media, especially the TV screen, a theme that i find within the majority of his works, but i prefer it so much more when he's being subtle about it. It appears to me, that his films fluctuate up and down the scale of how in your face they can be with their messages, i for one much prefer the cryptic nature of them as in Cache or Seventh Continent, as compared to Funny Games.
Benny's Video is rather soulless,… -
You know you are in full on feel good Haneke mode, as soon as the picture opens with the slaughter of a pig. Probably my least favorite of early Haneke films, but it is a compelling tale of guilt and violence all the same.
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"and what was it like?"
Haneke has never been served by an irreducible clarity of expression, and this remains his most useless instance of teachable cinema. prescient at the time of its making, the film's insights regarding images of violence and the numbing effect of mediated living are now regrettably self-evident... the film completely fails to support its pivotal moments of ideological purpose, namely the opening sequence and the moment during which "benny's video" is normalized as it abruptly cuts into a banal advertisement.
essentially, this film feels like the movie that Haneke's laziest critics always assume that he's making. and it ends with such an embarrassing mic drop... i think of that horrible cologne ad that Scorsese made, where…
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This is Benny's review of BENNY'S VIDEO:
It's not very good. Benny is a loathsome teenager who loves watching/making videos and in typical Haneke fashion eventually does something shocking and has to deal with the consequences. Or maybe not. Haneke is known to deliver effective punches to the gut but the whole 'desensitization of media' thing is a kind of an obvious, played-out point. But hey, it was 1992. Onto 71 FRAGMENTS....
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A slow, emotionless but terribly powerful and moving psych-drama that can be seen as an unofficial prequel to Haneke's masterpiece Funny Games.
Haneke's interest in the public's "eye" is what makes this film so intriguing. Like Funny Games, there are countless images of flickering TV screens and newsreel's. He likes to question why it is that we find certain things entertaining. Why are we interested in the news? Why would we watch sport? Why watch Funny Games? Why watch Benny's Video?
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This is a pretty premature verdict from me considering I’ve only seen four other Haneke releases (those being the two Funny Games, Cache and The White Ribbon), but the general context of a Haneke feature becomes immediately clear. They are films flooded with heartache, isolation, vulnerability and most apparent of all, they are drenched in animosity. Benny’s Video is certainly something that can be associated with all those terms; it’s a cruel piece of film-making that is as unrelenting as it is beautiful. Benny, played by Arno Frisch in unforgiving fashion, who is the perfect example of everything that makes Haneke’s films so groundbreaking and astonishing. Benny is a young teenager, seemingly separated from the world and as far from…
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Haneke's murkiest essay. Part critique of post-modernism through a modernist frame, part Kulturkritik, part boring, part compelling.
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Eerily disturbing movie, it feels uncomfortable while watching it, like you are going Peeping Tom over somebody's private life. It's a fierce voice of disgust against the things that are accepted, a must watch for admirers of apocalyptic movies.
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boring
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The obvious criticisms of Benny's Video (the second film in The Glaciation Trilogy) would be that it is painfully slow, cold, emotionless, heartless, and so distant that it results in the alienation of the viewer. And I actually agree with all of the above. But alongside all of its flaws, it fascinated me. This movie perfectly captures the harsh theme of isolation and I think it's hauntingly accurate. It was made early on in the 90s when computers/video weren't nearly as crucial or present in society as they are today. However, Haneke's advanced depiction of violence and altered perceptions of reality in relation to technology were spot on. As per usual, he leaves us with a powerful final scene, leaving you thinking about what you just saw for days. I'd say the beginning and ending were both very strong making up for the middle section which I found a bit flat and excessive.
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Benny’s Video is about a privileged, manic-depressive teenage boy who becomes inattentive to reality by watching violent videos. Without analyzing it too much, I came to the conclusion that this is a story of how one’s vision can be controlled and blurred from reality. I really like this story; Haneke’s use of foreshadow is effective and smart. Although there are complaints that this film fails to support its pivotal moments of ideological purpose and what not, I think that there is something really special happening here. And yes, I know it’s not as iconic as Funny Games or as picturesque as The White Ribbon. I highly recommend this movie, seeing as it is apart of the glaciation trilogy.
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Sick. Sick. Sick.
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This is Benny's review of BENNY'S VIDEO:
It's not very good. Benny is a loathsome teenager who loves watching/making videos and in typical Haneke fashion eventually does something shocking and has to deal with the consequences. Or maybe not. Haneke is known to deliver effective punches to the gut but the whole 'desensitization of media' thing is a kind of an obvious, played-out point. But hey, it was 1992. Onto 71 FRAGMENTS....
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Continuing on with Haneke's "Glaciation Trilogy", where Haneke continues to ramp up his obsession with alienation in the modern world to extremes, comes the second in the trilogy Benny's Video. This is a much more heavy-handed passive aggressive attack on modern media, especially the TV screen, a theme that i find within the majority of his works, but i prefer it so much more when he's being subtle about it. It appears to me, that his films fluctuate up and down the scale of how in your face they can be with their messages, i for one much prefer the cryptic nature of them as in Cache or Seventh Continent, as compared to Funny Games.
Benny's Video is rather soulless,… -
Disturbing and sad, Haneke directs like a boss.