Benny's Video
So, Mr. JDC, how do you feel about psychopaths? I got two from Kanako, and now Benny. This is an instant reaction, I just played Death Stranding for an hour in between viewing the film and writing here, and that's about it for cushion and processing. I also saw it after watching Wreck-It Ralph, which I find to be very optimistic and comforting. I know movies nor art have a primary purpose of comforting us. If anything, I've perhaps become a little weaker mentally as I've pampered my psyche with warm-blanket type films. With Benny, I at least felt challenged. This is another one of your films about people confronting terrible situations and being forced to make big decisions on the fly that reveal something about human nature. I think it's probably a bit cynical, as is Kanako, whereas Take Shelter and The New World are a lot more loving and generous in nature. But then, it'd be hard to contend that there aren't people like Benny in the world, and it's a moral problem in how we deal with them. But now I should probably stop talking in generalizations, and be more specific.
Benny is video crazed, and the point here is that these videos, seeing things through a screen/a filter is a process of dehumanization. I think Haneke has something fairly interesting to say about the process of filming and rewatching films in that we become numb to the actual world around us. Benny has probably seen the video that begins the proceedings, the execution of the pig, plenty of times. As someone who has seen a lot of animal cruelty captured on tape, it never ceases to disturb me, but I think we all have different levels to how we react to the filming of cruelty. Benny is on the other end of the spectrum from me, which makes this all the more interesting as a viewing. Now, when he kills the girl that he lures up to his apartment, there seems to be the insinuation that the dehumanizing forces of repeated viewing of videos, indeed the compulsion to view the world this way, can have drastic consequences on the psyche that can lead to the feeling that all is permitted. Benny does what he does with nearly the emotion of the person executing the pig. He kills to see what it feels like, as if it were just another experience to which he was entitled.
The father makes another pivotal decision, which is mostly rooted in self-preservation: Dispose of the body discretely while Benny and the mother take a trip to Egypt. That Benny turns around and calls the police on his parents after returning is radical and difficult to comprehend. It's as if he's pulling levers to watch the outcome. Again, if life is like a video, and experiences are his to seize upon, then Benny simply seems to operate in a detached and curious manner that only the most dangerous people possess.
Haneke obviously put intense thought into the videos that he'd play as well as create. All of the TV clips and homemade videos create both a scrabbled and impressionistic effect. We are bombarded with so many images, many of which feel random, that my mind mostly discarded as soon as I saw them. This could be perceived as a commentary on the disposable nature of filmed moments, foreshadowing the effect YouTube would have on us a few decades later. I find this film incredibly successful in what it's trying to achieve. Although I can have a hard time with such unlikable characters, the attention to detail in regards to video-taping and filming as well as the lofty thematic content make this a winner for me.
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PS, on JDC's film month: Gummo was just too low-res for me to finish. I also couldn't find a suitable stream for Naked Lunch, but I'm glad at least you got me interested in the book again.