In short: Man Bites Dog (1992)

Original title: C'est arrivé près de chez vous

At least when it came out, this very dark francophone Belgian comedy by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde (who also are the main cast) was a bit of a cult hit. It’s no surprise, for the film’s structure as a fake documentary by three guys following around a sociopathic killer when he’s doing his dirty business is rather useful as a device to grimly send up the growing reality show business as well as the petit bourgeoisie, and its flippant depiction of violence and a couple of horrible characters is basically catnip to us cult movie fans.

It’s the anti-bourgeois aspect the film puts the greatest emphasis on (actual reality TV as we know it today wasn’t quite a thing yet, lucky time), Poelvoorde playing the killer Ben as the sort of self-centred, pseudo-educated, racist, sexist and endlessly talking embodiment of the reason why the bourgeoisie does have a bit of a bad rep in certain circles. But then, the film seems to suggest, there’s really only a tiny step between talking this way and being a cold-hearted monster, so the on-screen filmmakers don’t slowly slide into the roles of willing accomplices but are there basically from minute one.


Which is of course one of the film’s biggest problems. It has basically said everything it wanted to say in its first thirty minutes, has demonstrated what it wanted to demonstrate and then treads water for an hour or so by going through increasingly unpleasant, yet not increasingly disturbing, scenes of Ben doing horrible things, followed by a bit of Ben ranting at someone, followed by another murder, and so on, and so forth. For my taste, it all gets a bit tedious and samey, and while I do admire the filmmakers for being consistent, I do believe the film goes nowhere terribly interesting very slowly once it has very deftly set up its basic premise.