Benny's video
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Benny's video |
| Country of production | Austria , Switzerland |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Haneke |
| script | Michael Haneke |
| production | Wega Film , Veit Heiduschka |
| music | Karl Schlifelner |
| camera | Christian Berger |
| cut | Maria Homolkova |
| occupation | |
| |
Benny's Video is a film by the director Michael Haneke . The premiere took place on October 20, 1992.
action
Benny, a teenager, lives with his wealthy family in Vienna . His parents are both employed and the young person is often at home alone. He has a video camera with which he is passionate about filming a lot. As his only real hobbies, filming and watching videos take up a large part of his free time.
One day he films a relatives slaughtering a pig with a nail gun on their farm . Fascinated by this video, he watches it over and over at home. He also plays the video to a girl he meets in front of his main video library and who comes to see him in the “storm-free booth”. He then shows her the bolt gun that was previously stolen from the farm. Pressed against her body, he triggers the gun. When she then writhes on the ground, and since he cannot stand her screams, he kills her with two more shots. Meanwhile his camera is running.
After sleeping away for one night, he showed the video to his parents the following evening without comment. They are shocked and discuss how to proceed while Benny is already in bed. But Benny has asked his mother to leave the door of his room ajar and records their conversation on video. The parents decide that Benny should travel to Egypt with his mother for a week , while the father, who remains at home, has the body disappeared. When Benny comes back from vacation, he files a police report against his parents. During his interrogation, Benny shows the police officers the recording of his parents' conversation in which they decide how to deal with the girl's body.
analysis
Many shots in the film can be seen from the perspective of the video camera of the main character Benny, whereby these partly take up the whole picture or can be seen on a television screen. In addition to the video of the pig slaughter, some recordings during the stay in Egypt and the video evidence during interrogation, this is particularly important in the killing scene. In this setting, the video camera is firmly mounted in the room and only reveals details of the gruesome events. The confrontation can only be guessed from the rumbling noises and the girl's screams.
The communication in the film often takes place on several levels, in that in conversation scenes there is usually some medium running in the background at the same volume. The viewers are challenged to perceive both sources of information, even if they cannot be clearly separated immediately.
The medium of video offers Benny the opportunity to preserve the outside world and thus make it controllable. What he has experienced can thus be reproduced, influenced, reworked and revoked. This can be seen in the example of slaughter. If Benny runs the film backwards, the pig comes back to life; If he plays the scene forwards, the slaughter is repeated. Ultimately, however, Benny has to recognize death as an irreversible limitation of his actions in the case of the girl.
Production notes
The film was shot from November 1991 to January 1992 in Vienna , Lower Austria and Styria . Was used 35 mm film .
The film was funded by the Austrian Film Institute and the Vienna Film Fund. In addition to Swiss television , Austrian radio also took part in the production as part of the film / television agreement . Christoph Kanter was responsible for the production design .
The film was viewed 5,697 times in Austrian cinemas (as of December 31, 2005).
Reviews
“An oppressive, complex moral fable about the alienation of people from beings with terrifying emotional indifference. The densely staged, excellently played and photographed film describes with disturbing consistency the loss of a sense of reality, passion and the ability to suffer. "
"Haneke is a complex moral fable and a masterpiece of great aesthetic density, cleverly staged and photographed, elegantly assembled, rhythmically subtly told, with reservations, small accelerations and delays, without any rigidity - last but not least, the play is free of worn ornamentation, detailed and yet with a precise outline "
Awards
- 1992: European FIPRESCI Prize
- 1993: Vienna Film Prize of the Viennale
literature
- Christian Wessely: Virtuality - Reality - Mediality. Reality dimensions in BENNY'S VIDEO . In: Franz Grabner et al. (Ed.): Michael Haneke and his films . Schüren, Marburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-89472-402-3 , p. 87-104 .
Web links
- Benny's Video in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Benny's video. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Classic films, descriptions and comments / ed. by Thomas Koebner […], Vol. 4: 1982–1994, Reclam, Stuttgart 1995 (Universal Library; 9419), ISBN 3-15-009419-4 , p. 388