Fandango: Man Bites Dog (The Criterion Collection) (1993)

Product Details

Actors: Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Jean-Marc Chenut, Olivier Cotica, Rachel Deman
Format: Anamorphic, Black ; White, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Release Date: September 24, 2002
Run Time: 95 minutes

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Man Bites Dog (The Criterion Collection) (1993)

Client Critiques

The Criterion Collection brings film lovers some of the most engaging, difficult pictures ever created. National borders mean tiny to the folks at this DVD company they will release American films as readily as they will European cinema or documentaries about African dictators. Moreover, Criterion does not flinch from controversial films simply because they include controversial themes. Thanks to this firm, we can readily obtain good versions of Paul Morrissey's "Flesh for Frankenstein" and "Blood for Dracula" along with the ultra violent "Robocop." I have yet to completely explore the depths of Criterion's film catalog, but their other discs ought to surely be as intriguing as the titles I have viewed so far. Criterion finally released 1 of my preferred foreign films, the independent little gem entitled "C'est Arrive Pres de Chez Vous," oddly translated as "Man Bites Dog." Made in Belgium a little over a decade ago, this fascinating movie viciously satirizes the media and its like for dramatic violence. Criterion not only presents this movie with a heap of extras, they also restored the film to its uncut form. This is vital because the version I watched nearly ten years ago was missing two scenes that are arguably the most shocking components in the entire film.
Filmed entirely in the style of a black and white documentary, "Man Bites Dog" is an sometimes outrageous excursion into the underground world of a sadistic thug named Benoit, a travelogue of the daily activities and random thoughts of a bloodthirsty sociopath. Most of the time he robs the elderly of their pensions, commits burglaries, drinks himself silly, or kills innocent consumers for no other cause than that he feels like it. In numerous scenes we see Ben instructing the film crew on how to weigh down bodies so they will not float when he dumps the corpses into an abandoned rock quarry. His associates are mainly a rather seedy lot: he quite often visits an aging woman of questionable virtue and hangs out with an obnoxious boxer. Beneficial old Benny is not above suddenly killing a pal in a fit of rage, or giving an old woman a fatal heart attack by screaming at the leading of his lungs into her face. This guy is a piece of operate, but what definitely makes the film painful to watch is how Benoit gradually lures the filmmakers into sharing his gruesome crimes.
In a way, and this is the true genius of "Man Bites Dog," the viewer can from time to time understand why the documentarians develop into involved in Benoit's shenanigans. Even as he commits the most despicable of crimes, this hooligan is truly a charming character with several endearing traits. He frequently waxes philosophic about such disparate topics as architecture and poetry, has a lady buddy who takes him to art galleries, and his generosity to the filmmakers chronicling his life knows no bounds. Benny is often willing to acquire a drink or pitch in to help spend for extra film since he enjoys the firm of his newfound buddies. Watching this guy play with children in the street even though he committed an atrocious crime against a youth in a further scene presents the documentarians, and by extension the viewer, with a moral quandary not easily resolved. Benoit does not represent what Hannah Arendt referred to as the "banality of evil" but rather an "ambiguity of evil," and it tends to make pigeonholing this character at times extremely problematic. To make it even even more challenging for the viewer to hate Benoit, his likeable mother and grandfather seem from time to time. But abhor him you will, especially after seeing the aftermath of a robbery in the suburbs and an encounter with a couple in an apartment after an all-night drunk. "Man Bites Dog" is a difficult film.
Even worse, this movie is sometimes fairly funny in the way only the blackest of comedies can accomplish. Benoit's overdramatic French dialogue is a scream, and a large number of of his views on life are just downright hysterical. You can't assist but laugh when Benoit forces the camera crew to rebury bodies that have suddenly reappeared when the quarry goes dry. I feel 1 of the funniest scenes in the movie occurs when a member of the documentary crew dies as a outcome of Benoit's activities and we see a member of the crew eulogize him on camera. When another filmmaker dies later in the film, this identical guy performs one more eulogy nearly indistinguishable from the initially a single. I have never felt as guilty about laughing for the duration of a film as I have with this one due to the fact I knew I just must not, could not, dared not obtain this amusing, but in the end I just could not aid myself from giggling more than Ben's antics.
The extras on the Criterion disc are not all that impressive. There is a film brief starring the actor who played Benoit that is not that fantastic, an interview with the filmmakers that is rather short and does not reveal a lot about the film, a still gallery, and some reviews concerning the movie. The transfer top quality of the image is outstanding, even though, as are the subtitles for this French language film. As far as I know, we have never ever noticed anything additional from the people responsible for "Man Bites Dog." Possibly these guys were one hit wonders, and if so that is a darn shame. This movie is so brilliantly conceived and executed that it is difficult to imagine that whoever produced it would slide into obscurity.

MAN BITES DOG is, rather basically, a single of the blackest comedies ever created. The documentary following a charismatic serial killer about his every day business consists of some of the most biting satire and perverse irreverence ever put on film. It's also perfectly scripted, directed and acted on a non-existant budget (most of the cast are members of the crew, who created the film whilst at school). Years just before NATURAL BORN KILLERS, these Belgian students made a far smarter and wittier satire of media violence, that challenges our society to look at its morbid fascination with the macabre dead in the eyes. Perhaps you will not like what you see of oneself from this perspective.
This remains the only Belgian film I've observed, and one of the few Belgian cultural artefacts of any nature. A country that can generate a masterpiece such as this surely can not be as negative as everybody says :))