X
- 1994
- Not Rated
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 50 m
- 1994
- Not Rated
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 50 m
Summary A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Written By: Michael Haneke
- 1994
- Not Rated
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 50 m
- 1994
- Not Rated
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 50 m
Benny's Video (1992)
60
7.4
Summary A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.
Directed By: Michael Haneke
Written By: Michael Haneke
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
60
56% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
11% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
60
56% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
11% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Haneke's schoolmarm tendencies come to the surface in Benny's Video, which implicates the media for desensitizing people to violence.
Haneke carefully and ingeniously presents the boy's point of view without sympathizing with him. He then does the same with his horrified but protective parents. [18 Nov 1994, p.G35]
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
7.4
88% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
6% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
6% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
7.4
88% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
6% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
6% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Benny's Video renders the viewer complicit in the actions unfolding so nightmarishly, forcing us to ask ourselves why we watch.
Haneke directs Benny's Video in a cool, dispassionate style that matches the austerity of his subject, but keeps us at a distinct remove. And even though he introduces a faintly optimistic note in the film's last moments -- a hint at possible redemption -- his film is mostly a grim, downbeat experience. [01 Apr 1994, p.C3]
Overly familiar in its themes, though still somewhat potent in its depiction of an alienated 14-year-old boy from a well-to-do family who's preoccupied with video technology and winds up commiting a monstrous act. In some ways, the portrait of his parents is even more chilling.
Documentaries show us what can be seen; fiction features, to qualify as art, should visualize for us the usually unseen. Benny's Video, in which the thought processes of the characters are never delivered to the camera, is all surface. Its implicit claim is that by doing nothing, it is doing everything. But there are times, and this is one of them, when less is merely less. [27 Mar 1993]
Benny’s Video is a smug, contemptuous, passive-aggressive attack on the dehumanizing effects of media, without even the common decency to offer shrill sensationalism to punch up its subsequently feckless, reactionary, pomo assertions.
Production Company
Bernard Lang,
Langfilm,
Wega Film
Release Date Nov 18, 1994
Duration 1 h 50 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline From the director of THE PIANO TEACHER and CACHÉ
Awards
European Film Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Viennale
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Chicago International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
