"don't ask a cobbler to make hats."

oh, michael haneke, what is to be done with you?

"benny's video" came rather early in the grand scheme of things, and i suppose in 1992 it may have seemed a different film entirely. before "cache", before "funny games", both german and english (may i just take this opportunity to say that, in my opinion, if english speaking audiences are too lazy to watch a subtitled film, then they do not deserve their own shot-for-shot translation?), before "the piano teacher" (my favorite, which could owe to the fact that elfriede jelinek was the author). before the seemingly never-ending acts of ever-more-shocking violence by teenagers.

but if you detach the fac tof all of that, there still remains that one thing which makes haneke's films so different -- someway, somehow, he always catches you off guard. you've momentarily relaxed, forgotten that you're supposed to be tense and watchful because you know that something repugnant is going to happen. i was completely unprepared for the 'moment' in this film, even though i knew exactly what i was getting myself into, i had relaxed. and it doesn't hit you until a moment after, when you think, 'wait, did that just...?' i confess, i always suspect that he's going to pull some sort of trick, beat takeshi rising at the end of "battle royale". no in "benny's video".

apart from the rather gruesome event that occurs early on in the film, the main terror comes from watching benny's parents quite calmly decide that they will take care of the situation, not necessarily out of love for benny, although good ol' dad does muster an unconvincing 'ich liebe dich' at the end, but because they could be rounded up for, gasp!, child neglect. and that horrific thought alone is enough to convince them that the solution to the problem isn't jail for benny, but rather an eritrean vacation with mom while dad chops up the poor unfortunate victim of benny's curiosity and shoves her down the drain.

i don't care. i don't want him to start making comedies. michael haneke suits me just fine.