THE SEVENTH CONTINENT / BENNY’S VIDEO / 71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE

ABOUT THE FILMS:

THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, 1989, Dir: Michael Haneke, 104 Minutes, Janus Films, Austria.   

In German with English subtitles. 

Michael Haneke’s debut feature centers around a family of three: George, Anna, and their daughter Eva, all of whom (or at least their names) reappear throughout his filmography. Discontented with the monotony of bourgeois life, the trio craft a shocking plan to escape it. With painstaking attention given to all aspects of performance and a feeling of dread that suffuses the narrative from start to finish, THE SEVENTH CONTINENT is a harbinger of the disturbing, thought-provoking, and ultimately courageous cinema Haneke is known for today.

FORMAT: 35mm

BENNY’S VIDEO, 1992, Dir: Michael Haneke, 110 Minutes, Janus Films, Austria/Switzerland.   

In German with English subtitles. 

Paving the way for later films such as FUNNY GAMES and Lynne Ramsay’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, BENNY’S VIDEO examines the function of violence in the media through the eyes of a teenage boy obsessed with videotaping his life. As Benny performs increasingly horrific acts on camera, his parents attempt to cover up the reality of the situation.

FORMAT: 35mm

71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE, 1994, Dir: Michael Haneke, 96 Minutes, Janus Films, Austria/Germany.   

In German with English subtitles. 

Several people in Vienna go about their daily lives, each unaware of the tragic fate that ties them together. From a Romanian child immigrant to a security worker and a group of college students, Michael Haneke’s camera traces each fragment of a mass shooting back to its origin, documenting the minute goings on of humanity in the moments leading up to unspeakable loss.

FORMAT: 35mm