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It is "Man Bites Dog", or "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" for you French speakers.The film generates an incredibly palpable sense of phisical disgust, something that you don't often encounter. That sense was so strong that we simply had to stop watching it.
Anyone here seen that "masterpiece"? Had the guts to finish it?
Follow Ups:
........
is the 'Funny Games' film mentioned by a previous poster. Even more unsettling, however, is the film "Henry; Portrait of a Serial Killer". Whether one will 'enjoy' this film or even like it is up for question, but it's hard to deny the film's highly effective, dark & gritty atmosphere. A film experience for devotees of the macabre.
VK, see Aaron King's review at www.imdb.com. I haven't see the film,
but his review seemed well reasoned. - AH
***VK, see Aaron King's review at www.imdb.com.I saw a bunch of others, but could not find that one. Where is it?
The reviews are listed chronologically, Aaron King's review is on March 9th, 2000. - AH
The only place I found was in the "Awards and Reviews" section and there it was not to be found.Well, I try not to read reviews anyway...
Go to www.imdb.com, type Man Bites Dog in the search database block
(all), then click on Go! This will take you to the page for that
film, with the french title prominent, a photo of the videotape with
"Man Bites Dog" underneath the title. Scroll down to bottom of this
page and click on "check for other user comments"; this will take you
to all the reviews, listed chronologically. Just scroll down until
you reach King's review dated 9 March 2000. - AH
I have never gone into that area.Anyway, I would only like to quote a small part of his review:
"I felt really dirty and uncomfortable after watching this film and I believe that this is precisely how I was supposed to feel."
I agree here completely. Unfortunately, "feeling dirty and uncomfortable" is not what I seek in movies, and in art in general. I still believe in that old-fashion notion that art is supposed to bring out the better in us.
Your cinematic philosophy was shared by reviewer Leonard Maltin when
he rated Wes Craven's controversial, supposedly disgusting 1972 film "Last House On The Left" a BOMB, (whereas, OTOH, Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars!). - AH
I personally thought Man Bites Dog was hilarious - I was laughing through the whole thing. But I guess we all have different senses of what's funny and what's not. I just never questioned the absurdity of this movie enough to take it seriously.I also really liked American Psycho enough to go out and actually buy the DVD and read the book. Really fascinating stuff. The movie is pretty twisted and all . . but also leans enough towards the absurd to become funny (still disturbing . . but funny). The book is the most disturbing book I have ever read. I had nightmares for days while reading it.
nt
Hi VictorI must confess that "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" must be quite horrible if not seen in french. The first time I saw this film I was revolted. The second time I saw it, after being harassed by a belgian friend, I loved it. But most of the humor in this film won't translate really well.
If you want to see a really revolting film, rent "The cook, the thieve his wife and her lover" (or something that souds like it...). You can also go for "La Grande Bouffe" with Matroianni and Noiret
***If you want to see a really revolting film, rent "The cook, the thieve his wife and her lover" (or something that souds like it...). You can also go for "La Grande Bouffe" with Matroianni and NoiretYes, I know both films very well. The first one is also an incredible treat visually, and is done by a true master, albeit with his talent largely misplaced, so it actually has redeaming values in it. That boy singing in the kitches was incredible.
I'll agree with you on the visual aspect of the film, it's quite amazing. The lighting is incredibly theatrical. It is quite revolting indeed. Revolting doesn't mean bad (in french anyway...). The boy singing is also the part that marked me the most.
Jeff wrote:"Revolting doesn't mean bad (in french anyway...)"
Jeff, if one is using the word "revolting" to describe "The cook, the thief his wife and her lover" then revolting means bad!!!!! :-)
I have a strong stomach (long time horror/sci-fi fan), but that movie was simply loathsome! It produced tortuous boredom and moments of sheer disgust. I almost walked out (never done that before). And I'm a film buff - very inclusive in my tastes. It's not just the misanthanthropic bent of the characters; that I'm fine with. Rather, it seemed the entire film - the intent - was sick and misanthropic. I've never felt such anger at a filmmaker.
As everyone raved about Peter Greenaway I thought "Well, that was perhaps the worst movie I've ever seen, but being a film buff I'll give his films another chance." So I rented "Drowning By Numbers." AAgh. Utterly impossible to connect with anything in that film. Did I stop there? Nope. I actually went to see "Prospero's Books" too. Cripes - THE most turgid, stale, mean, cold, pretentious, booooooring film I have ever seen. I finally said f-ck this! And I walked out before the end.
I can't think of any filmmaker I'd say this about, but if I actually met Mr. Greenaway I don't know if I could resist tackling him, dumping the money from his pockets, and thanking him for remunerating me for three of the worst movie experiences I've ever had.
End of Rant.
Rich H.
So it sounds like you see no redeaming values in his work. I do, however, I too have to struggle to get to them through the moutains of often gratuitous and seemingly unnecessary stuff that obscures rather than emphasizes the beauty of his films.There is no question that he is a master and an artist. The question is whether his agenda is sometimes stronger than his artistic taste. Whether or not he is governed by the desire to shock more than the sheer drive to create art. Perhaps Pasolini was another example of such struggle, where his enormous talent was simply directed towards the open war with the stale Italian public.
Many artists wage such wars at one time or another, and it is often distracting to be caught in the crossfire, but even then I can't overlook these two guys tremendous abilities to achive the deep emotional impact - one of the main purposes of art.
Disassociating the means from the subject is often hard, but must be done in order to enjoy many a work of art. Otherwise we are bound to dismiss many works simply because we do not find the subject matter to our taste, and many different tastes we do have...
This is easy to say, but in reality we all fall into this trap, and usually not when dealing with a "trully and purely artistic" endevours, which are most commonly simply branded "boring", but rather when facing the works that contain extreme cases of subject overload. Often this would contain the subject with great shock value (just look at the "Salo"... one of the all-time prime examples of such overload, as much as I LOVE that film), making it all too easy to get up and leave.
It IS a balancing act and we randomly fall on one side or another at different times, often depending upon our present moods. Art is ALWAYS personal...
In case of Greenaway I tend to fall on the side of cutting him slack, even though certain parts of the "Cook..." are nothing but cheap shockers in my view, albeit artistically done. Is that attitude of mine going to change at some point in time? That is entirely possible. I just might say: "OK, Peter, enough is enough, you are now getting just boring" and move onto Cameron's next "masterpiece" or simply start watching NBA games. That time has not arrived yet - for me, anyway, as my wife is much closer to that outburst and I would have to twist her arm gently to make her see his next work.
Not sure if it was released this year, but it was on the recent display shelves at the rental store. Check it out. Pretty cool!
"It's coming near your house?" "Man Bites Dog"I'll be sure to avoid it.
Thank you.
Haven't seen it but Haneke's 'Funny Games' did the same thing to me - very provocative and disturbing, questionning the 'voyeur' in us. Yuk!
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