Foreign Language Hall of Fame

The following is only Michael Haneke's second feature film, yet he shows clear mastery of his craft. He is a director who knows the exact coordinates of his next moves, and he doesn't compensate or become satisfied, unless the results are exactly what he is thriving for. He is a stark film-maker in content and form, and I believe Benny's Video demonstrates that perfectly. It's his first attempt at tackling the subject of media consumption, and its effects on influencing one's thoughts and actions, which would become a recurring, and subtler theme throughout his filmography.

Benny is a troubled young privileged boy, who thrives on recreating what his mind and senses have already consumed from the media. He understands the falseness of what he sees in movies, and wants to convert that phoniness into its literal form. He is also far from being an adrenaline junkie, since he gets no pleasure nor excitement from acting upon his heinous thoughts. Benny can't possibly even relate to anyone, including himself, due to the media completely desensitising him to basic human emotions. His glacial reactions to the most horrific happenings, could be paralleled to a TV commentator's trained and scripted reportage of the madness in our world.

Thanks to Arno Frisch's simple, subtle, and stoic performance, Benny comes off as neither a straightforward, nor complex character, which compliments the always present mundane atmosphere. As for the rest of the small cast, Ulrich Mühe is fantastic as usual, and Angela Winkler gives the best I've seen of her, and is undoubtedly the reason for one of my favourite scenes of the film. Let's not also forget all of the cameras and televisions inside of Benny's room, since they're not only important characters, but important figures for Benny as well, as they fill the roles of his absent parents. It's also hard not to mention the purposeful and precise cinematography, that that adds to the eroding of the walls between the real, the unreal, and Benny's video.

All in all, just like Haneke himself, this film is a favourite of mine, and would be what I answer when asked about the type of movies I love, since this love keeps developing throughout a long period of time, and I believe that's the most rewarding kind of love.