A Killer Comedy (Man Bites Dog (DVD))

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Man Bites Dog (DVD)
Date:	02/10/09 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good peformance by Benoit Poelvoorde in the lead role.

Disadvantages: Graphically violent in many parts.

Man Bites Dog (C'est arrivé près de chez vous) was first released in 1992 It started off as a project by two film students Remy Belvaux and Andre Bonzel and their old school friend Benoit Poelvoorde (who plays the lead role). The trio were initially held up by a severe lack of resources but were eventually helped out financially by their local Belgium French speaking community, a film lecturer who gave them some free film stock and their family and friends who took unpaid parts in the film. The eventual budget totalled $15,000. The film won awards at both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals.

The film takes on a documentary style format in which a small film crew follow the daily pursuits of a charismatic and very amiable serial killer as he carries out countless motiveless murders - usually starting off with a postman in the morning. Poelvoorde plays the lead role exceptionally well and it's not hard to warm to his character as his film crew follow him around his local town to record his random atrocities. He plays a funny likeable guy (if you ignore the fact that he is a misogynist, racist and homophobic) who gets on well with his parents and likes a drink or too with his mates. In between countless homicides he manages to give us his informed opinion about various topics: social housing, chamber music, philosophy and has the habit of reciting out loud his own poetry - usually about pigeons. He also explains in detail about the art of being a serial killer: who are the best victims, how to get rid of the bodies and how to sink a corpse.

There are plenty of comical moments both during and away from the serial killing. We see Ben getting drunk and acting the fool with his film crew buddies. After killing a security guard Ben points to a nearby building and remarks: "I once buried two Arabs in a wall over there... facing Mecca, of course." Perhaps the funniest thing of all is how Ben uses his own Mother and grandparents in the film (for budget reasons) whilst they were all completely unaware that the film was about a serial killer. This is probably the main reason why the family scenes come across so naturally.

One drawback for non francophone viewers is trying to read the subtitles. Ben likes to talk a lot and it is a struggle at times to keep up with the subtitles which are particularly difficult to read against the grainy and high contrast black and white imagery of the film.

The film's violence didn't really effect me as much as I expected. Apart from one rather repellent gang rape and murder scene - in which the camera crew enthusiastically participate, there weren't that many stomach churning moments, as there were in say... 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. For the most we never get up close to Ben's victims, they remain anonymous characters who play the smallest of parts before being dumped into an abandoned quarry or thrown over a bridge into a river. Perhaps it is the film's harsh black and white imagery that removes you somewhat from the graphical violence - all the blood and gore would have been more gruesome in colour.

'Man Bites Dog' was a box office hit in Belgium upon release and received much international acclaim. I have read numerous reviews going on about how it is a clever film in that it makes you think about voyeurism, film violence and the relationship between cinema/TV and exploitation, but I wasn't always convinced about such 'clever' intentions. According to the directors, the graphic violence is a reflection of our own violent lives and crime-saturated media. They are in some ways poking fun at the lofty ideals of black-and-white 'cinéma vérité', which is not always as objective as it claims. The film can also be seen as a satirical take on television's pretentious "real-life" crime genre with its journalistic notions of ethical detachment. Certainly these are valid points but I didn't think it was always as cerebral as some have claimed and at times Ben's exploits border on the adolescent. I kept thinking of how this could have been an enjoyable film without the violence and countless point blank gun shots to the head. One also has to question whether a real psycho killer could ever be so charming and sociable, not to mention get on so well with his Mother.

Perhaps what the film does best is to mock our complacency to violence in the cinema and on TV. Ben's crimes are portrayed with a certain honesty that is absent from the majority of main stream movies in which the glorification of guns, murder and stylised bloody violence has become a comfortable subject matter to be allowed regularly into family sitting rooms. Man Bites Dog undoubtedly succeeds in the way it plays with the continuing morbid fascination that modern audiences have for the darker side of the human psyche.

The extras on the DVD are nothing to get excited about. They include a very short photo library, a written review of the film production, a biography of the actor Benoit Poelvoorde and a dark and poorly filmed and instantly forgettable 12 minute featurette called 'No C4 for Daniel Daniel' - a seemingly short student film about a super hero.

Runtime: 95 minutes.
Rated NC-17 for strong graphic violence.

Summary: Portrait of a friendly serial killer