Last year’s enigmatic Caché (Hidden) may have brought Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke deserved notice and acclaim, but he’s been unsettling audiences for yonks, as these three early works make abundantly clear. And since ‘warm’ and ‘lovable’ aren’t exactly the first adjectives that come to mind when considering his films, it’s no great surprise that these three make up what Haneke called his “glaciation trilogy”.

Haneke loves to undermine complacency – ours, and that of his characters. The Seventh Continent, his feature debut after a decade or so in television, pitilessly observes the gradual disintegration (both psychological and literal) of a seemingly comfortable middleclass Austrian family. As the movie moves inexorably towards its devastating climax, Haneke withholds easy explanations. Or, indeed, any explanation at all.

Benny’s Video, by contrast, is guilty of over-rationalisation. Benny, a young teenager, lives in his shuttered room filtering life through video screens on which he watches images of violence. One day he invites a young girl to his room, trains the video camera on her and... well, you can see what’s coming, can’t you?

Finally, 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance comes across like a dry run for Haneke’s later, more accomplished Code Unknown. A mosaic of brief clips – that’s right, 71 of them – introduces us to a disparate group of people whose paths will eventually cross in a violent climax. A film-specific interview with the director garnishes each disc.

DVD Extras:

Director interview on each disc