KILL'EM, COMMENT
"So I killed a guy --
dat makes me a CRIMINAL?" -
Lenny Bruce, DANCE HALL RACKET
Imagine, if you will, that Jeffrey Dahmer had directed This Is Spinal Tap -- or that Tom Hanks had chosen to make his directing debut with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Got it? Then you might begin to get a handle on that razor-filled little Belgian waffle known as C'est Arrive Pres de Chez Vous -- or, to us non-Francophiles, MAN BITES DOG (1992). Alternately funny, sick, depressing, and horrifying, it is simultaneously the most beserk student film ever made and the closest most of us will ever come -- or want to come -- to a genuine "snuff" movie. It earns its NC-17 rating the hard way: it works for it.
Shot in 16mm black-and-white with a handheld camera for $15,000 (hell, that wouldn't have even paid for Sean Connery's toup in THE ROCK!), MAN BITES DOG purports to be the story of a documentary film crew who follows the day-to-day travails of a very busy Belgian serial killer named Benoit (Benoit Poelvoorde, who along with Remy Belvaux [Remy the director] and Andre Bonzel [Andre the cameraman] co-wrote/co-produced/co-directed). Aside from his tendancy to kill anything that moves (usually for money, often just for the hell of it), Benoit is a chatty, intelligent guy who spouts poetry and philosophy, loves his mom, and has a steady girlfriend with whom he plays classical duets. He loves being on-camera and/or the center of attention, whether it be detailing how to weigh down a corpse so it stays sunk or grousing about the local council flats. Indeed, at one point in the film Remy expresses doubts that he will be able to finish funding his movie, at which point Benoit promptly volunteers his murderous earnings. Nice guy -- as long as he doesn't shoot you.
Because of its rough-hewn mockumentary style, you literally have to keep repeating to yourself, Last House on the Left-style, "It's only a movie...isn't it?" One minute Benoit is in a bar, constructing a "drowning boy" out of toothpicks and sugarcubes, the next he's on one of his killing sprees (there are two "murder montages" that are as heavy-duty as anything the late Sam Peckinpah shot -- and I say this as a charter Fangoria reader and Romero/Cronenberg/H.G. Lewis afficianado!). In some ways, the film seems to have been beamed in from an alternate universe, as Benoit and filmers cross paths (and often do battle) with rival killers. In one sequence, Benoit has chased down and killed a rival sociopath, only to discover that his competitor had his own film crew in tow. After offering Remy their equipment (Remy demurs; the other crew's got video, not film, cameras!), Benoit's filmmakers get the chance to execute THEIR rivals. It's a scene worthy of early Woody Allen. Later, Benoit's friends throw him a birthday party, and one of his gifts is a new leather holster for his pistol. Benoit starts practising his quick-draw -- only to inadvertantly shoot one of the partygoers. After a moment of shocked silence, the party resumes as if nothing happened, and there isn't a guy at the end of the table with his brains oozing out the back of his head.
Is Benoit really a nice guy? Of course not, and the filmmakers show that as well. His mugging and pronouncements, witty at first, grow eventually tiring and merely obnoxious. When he introduces his girlfriend at a party, he literally drags her on-camera, and it's clear from her expression that she'd rather be anywhere else than on film. In the next scene, the pair are playing music together, and Benoit comes down a little hard on her when she hits a wrong note. And in a movie that can truthfully say it's got something to offend everybody, my least favorite scene has Benoit and the film crew barging in on a couple making love in their kitchen; the filmmakers take turns raping the wife while Benoit holds the husband at gunpoint, then kills them both. Which, of course, is the entire point of MAN BITES DOG -- the filmmakers progress from bemused observers of Benoit's slaughter to active participants, and eventually victims. Of the latter I will say no more, if only to retain the shock power of one of the bleakest, most nihilistic climaxes ever filmed.
If you have a strong stomach and a warped sense of humor, you'll probably enjoy most of MAN BITES DOG. I say "most of," because, again, entertainment is not the sole reason for this film. It accomplishes the rare task of feeding your id with verboten pleasures while rubbing your nose in said enjoyment.
Perhaps there's a moral in this most amoral of movies: violence corrupts, and absolute violence corrupts absolutely.
"Yeah, but did you see how he took out those guys on the street with his .45? Wow!"
*Sigh* Some people just don't get the joke...
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