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On the back of the success of Hidden, comes the release
of Michael Haneke's earliest productions, released on DVD
for the first time here, and previously known as The Emotional
Glaciation Trilogy. These films investigate the darkness
of the soul, particularly of normal middle-class people...
In
The Seventh Continent, Georg, Anna, and their young
daughter Eve, are a normal family, successful and seemingly
without a care in the world. But over a three-year period
Georg and Anna carefully deconstruct every part of their lives.
Jobs, car, bank account, and even the interior of the house
itself, so that no part of their former life is left behind.
For
me, this is probably the best of the bunch on offer here.
Arguably, it's a little too long, but it does show us every
part of the family's connections and how they are meticulously
severed. What makes this film poignant is the presence of
the little girl, who is too young to understand what is happening,
especially as we have to see her given an overdose of tablets.
In
Benny's Video, a schoolboy, fascinated with videos
depicting extreme violence, becomes obsessed after personally
filming the death of a pig on a farm. Stealing the contraption
used on the animal, he shows it to a girl he meets outside
the video shop. After running his film of the pig for her,
he loads the device and dares her to use it on him. When she
makes the mistake of daring him in return, he kills her. When
the boy's parents discover what has happened they are faced
with the dilemma of whether to come clean with the authorities
and so see their son's life ruined, or attempt to cover it
up.
Arno Frisch plays a younger version of pretty much the same
character as he does in Funny
Games (also directed by Michael Haneke). Benny's
Video is very slow in its pacing, as if that is likely
to tell us more about the psyche of the young offender. The
best part of this film is Benny's parent's discussion about
what to do when they discover the girl's body. The rest is
at best tedious and somewhat in bad taste.
In 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, a series
of events depicting people and places which are totally unconnected,
lead up to the shooting spree of an Austrian student at Christmas
in 1993.
At first viewing this contribution seems a little disjointed
and, frankly, nonsensical. It does turn out to have meaning,
but not enough to sustain much interest. And again, it outstays
its welcome by a good twenty minutes. Therefore, I count this
as the weakest of the three films.
For
anyone who doesn't already know, these films contain a German
language soundtrack and English subtitles. They are presented
in Anamorphic 1.85:1 with Dolby DTS sound. Each disc contains
an interview with the director. For world film collectors
and fans of Haneke.
Ty
Power
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