Benny is an intelligent, rather lonely boy aged about 14. His parents have enough money, but not much time for their child. So Benny seeks refuge in his hobby: video. He spends much of his time in his room, which is packed with equipment. Literally cut off from the outside world in his darkened room, he gazes with fascination at one violent video after another. His favourite is his own recording of the slaughter of a pig, which he watches time and again. One day he meets a shy girl at the video store, where else? His parents area way for the weekend and he takes her home. He shows her is video empire and the slaughter pistol he stole during his visit to the abattoir. The boundary between video and reality seems no longer to exist for Benny when he challenges the girl to try the pistol out on him. When she refuses, the roles are reversed.Dimitri Eipides of the Toronto Film Festival called Benny’s Video an impressive example of a new existentialist cinema which resists easy answers. Michael Haneke has undercooled events, and filmed close very precisely and penetratingly. He uses exclusively filmic means to evoke a chill, spruce, middle-class yet ultimately cruel world. The film forms part of a trilogy in which he wants to map the frosty relationships in contemporary Austrian society. Benny’s Video is part two, the first is Der Siebente Kontinent, the third is in preparation.
