Benny's Video

Der mittlere Film von Hanekes Debüt-Trilogie ist das filmhafteste Werk im traditionellen Sinne des Wortes. Er hat eine Idee und eine sich steigernde dramaturgische Struktur des Erzählens. Er hat auch ein geistreiches Haneke-Aufnehmen vom Geschehen außerhalb des Bildes und eine markante Hauptfigur. Und ein Knockout-Ende, das wahrscheinlich keinem anderen Drehbuchautor einfallen würde. Bravo. (02.06.2017)

Haneke’s movies are constantly declining towards a depressive disaster. Just like White Ribbon and just like Funny Games, it’s definitely true about Benny’s Video, too, which already looks disgusting from its movie description. Briefly put, perfect for ruining your mood. Haneke films this in his favorite style which is boring and boring… and boring and boring… then it focuses on the brutal scene that is properly raw and then he goes back to the sleeping state, only to finish this badly written joke with another brutal shock. I don’t know if I’m capable to eat this up anymore. Funny Games were probably the most acceptable, White Ribbonhas lulled me with an absolutely hypnotic atmosphere, which is something I didn’t get at all, but Benny’s Video is one big disaster. Benny is your classic jackass and his jackass family sends him to Egypt for a murder so that he could get his head together. This in itself isn’t really okay and even though the director knows that, he does everything he can to make everyone in the movie feel like it is okay. That raises some questions and scars my soul because it made me extremely uncomfortable. I’d much rather leave him out to the wolves, which didn’t happen, not even in the end. After this movie, I probably won’t watch any other Haneke movie. I watched this for the Challenge Tour 2015. (03.04.2015)

Etwas schwächer als Hanekes Höhepunkte ... die Radikalität und Präzision der chirurgischen Betrachtungsmethodik weicht dem traditionelleren Konzept, der chronologischen und klar kausalen Erzählung ein wenig zur Seite. Es fehlt hier an einer Steigerung sowie an absorbierender Unbestimmtheit Des siebenten Kontinent, andererseits fällt die Studie einzelner Charaktere umso detaillierter aus. Wir fühlen hier, im Vergleich zum Debüt sowie den nachfolgenden 71 Fragmenten einer Chronologie des Zufalls einen gewissen Konservatismus sowie eine direkte Anklage der modernen Gesellschaft mehr. Je mehr Haneke seine Methodik quasi nebenbei die Realität zerfressen lässt und sich nicht bemüht, sie als aktives Kommunikationsmittel zu nutzen, desto mehr wirken seine Werke auf mich ein. Daraus ergibt sich, dass Benny's Video mich quasi halb gepackt hat. (04.02.2010)

Michael Haneke – an extraordinary figure not only in European but of course global cinema. A filmmaker who doesn't mince his words and makes controversial works (the question is how controversial in relation to today's world and the principles on which it is based) that have not only artistic but above all communicative and critical value. Benny's Video is not a flat, devastating portrait of one cruel and inhumane act by a 14-year-old boy, but rather a film mapping (critiquing) today's system and a portrait of contemporary society as a whole (most of the specific motivations and mission of this film can be seen very clearly in the parental dialogue when Benny's door is left ajar). Again, it's the raw Haneke who chooses themes unacceptable to most other filmmakers and who, while criticizing, holds up a mirror, but in no way judges. He "merely" states. The fact that the film doesn't try to shock in any explicit way (except perhaps in one or two scenes at most) gives room for more psychological and sociological questions that you'll want to ask yourself the entire time you're watching Benny's video. My five hundredth film that I'm reviewing here on FilmBooster. But I certainly won't remember it just for being the five hundredth. (25.09.2011)