Benny's Video (1992)

A media-obssesed kid kills a young girl just to see 'what it's like', and his parents cover up the crime.

So far I have avoided watching any movies by Michael Haneke, since he's pretty much the archetype of the snotty European artsy-fartsy movie director. But I finally decided to check out some of his work, since it is being discussed so much.

At Imdb.com one commenter on this movie asks: "Should it be rated as a movie or as a Michael Haneke work?" That's a fair question, because without knowing about Haneke's 'insights' and merely judging the movie for what it is, I can say that's it is quite successful in depicting a creepy kid and his even more creepier parents and dissects the story very coldly creating a disturbing sense of unease.

However, I made the mistake of watching an interview with the director which was included as a bonus on the DVD. Although this was a German DVD and Haneke is an Austrian, the interview was held in French and subtitled in German! His snobbery knows no bounds.

In the interview he explains his extremely simplistic view that people tend to confuse movies and media with reality, and especially young people become disturbed by watching too much TV. I guess he doesn't realize that this is old hat, even Chesterton made fun of the same critique concerning Penny Dreadfuls more than a century ago. I'm afraid Haneke has no idea what cinema is really about. Luckily his movie has turned out to be a bit more than just a pamphlet of his smart-alecky world view.

What really angered me was his opinion that taking pictures on a vacation trip is 'perverse' ("I have never done that!" he proclaims). He says people live in the illusion that they could capture and 'dominate' reality this way. Of course, he is above such minor beings, since he's a creator of art...

I'm sorry to say that Michael Haneke is wrong on all he's been saying, and I'm afraid he hasn't really understood what cinema (and photography) really is. Having seen a Peter Greenaway interview recently on German TV where he states very much the same views these directors seem to think that only 'true art' has any right to exist and any other human effort is worthless.

I'm glad there are other directors out there who understand the complexity of cinema (and of our world) much better. And to recover from such snotty interviews I'll watch another Bunuel movie...