In Benny’s Video, reality is what we see, but also what we can manipulate at will. Michael Haneke knows very well where to direct our gaze, simply letting the images speak for themselves and – through monitors that almost act as a ‘filter’ – showing us a distorted world, a sick world.
The School of magical Animals entertains, but not too much, enthralls, but not too much. And, as a result, it is in danger of being forgotten shortly after its theatrical release.
Anything is possible in Charms Incidents. The series of events seems to follow no logic and what results are numerous highly Kafkaesque paradoxical situations.
It is based on a real-life news story 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance. In the film – which is divided into five chapters, each concerning a particular day – everything takes place from October 12 to December 23, 1993. Everything leads up to a single event in which all the characters will be involved in one way or another. But how important is the human being in this feature film by Michael Haneke?
In Michael Haneke’s Amour (Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2012, as well as Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 2013), there is no place for deep reflections on what human beings have become today. There is no place for the inner torments of talented pianists, adrift families or white-gloved young delinquents breaking into rich homes. Now is the time to focus on one of the most complex feelings, in its purest form.