Benny's Video (1992)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

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 | Boy | Pig | Murder | Girl

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)

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:

References 36 fillette (1988)

Should it be rated as a movie or as a Michael Haneke work?

If it is supposed to be a Haneke film, it does have a couple of pitfalls. It is not Haneke's best, perhaps because maybe he felt the pressure to top Der Siebente Kontinent. As someone said previously, it is rather heavyweight towards the end.

As a film without regarding who directed it, it is very good. It provides you with a raw documentary vision of a boy and his voyeuristic trend towards violence. It is rather simple yet, an amazing idea. Benny could be the boy living next door and, in fact, he is. He is not frightning on a "I know what you did last Summer" fashion. He is _truly_ frightning because he is a normal kid. And I do know a few like him. The ones I know never actually murdered anyone but, perhaps they simply didn't do it because they are afraid. Benny hasn't come to terms with that moral feeling yet and perhaps he never will.

On a metaphorical sense, it is the best portrait (along with Der Siebente Kontinent) of present day Austria, at least the Austria I see at some September rainy Vienna weekends...