a review of 班尼的录像带

Benny's Video is the fourth Haneke film I've seen — following Das Weiße Band, Funny Games and Amour — and I'm becoming more and more a fan of his work. Benny's Video is clearly a warming-up for Haneke's brilliant Funny Games, featuring the same intriguing, skilled actor: Arno Frisch. Benny's Video is not as masterful as Funny Games, but it gives you a similar uncanny feeling, somewhere between not knowing when to laugh and not knowing when to abhor. I love Haneke's signature detached, matter-of-factly film style, giving cold, harsh events a hint of absurdity, and subtly revealing an underlying layer of dark irony. Benny's Video could be called Austrian Psycho, as a wink to American Psycho, but without the American layer of gloss on top of it.