Man Bites Dog - Criterion Collection

Starring:RÃ©my Belvaux, AndrÃ© Bonzel, Jean-Marc Chenut, Olivier Cotica, Rachel Deman, Jenny Drye, Alexandra Fandango, Sylviane GodÃ©, AndrÃ© Laime, Edith Lemerdy, Malou Madou, Alain Oppezzi, Hector Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert, ValÃ©rie Parent, BenoÃ®t Poelvoorde, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert, Vincent Tavier, Zoltan Tobolik, Willy Vandenbroeck
Director: RÃ©my Belvaux, AndrÃ© Bonzel, BenoÃ®t Poelvoorde
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This Belgian satire (in French with English subtitles) is dark, dark, dark--but also right on the money in its sly sendup of the media's fascination with violence and its complicity therein. This mock documentary has a trio of filmmakers shooting a cinéma vérité feature about a garrulous serial killer who lets the film crew follow him around as he selects victims and then dispatches them. But at what point does filmmaking become participation? These hapless documentarians soon find out as their subject eventually pulls them into his world, including a gun battle with a rival film crew and their own criminal star. Gruesomely hilarious, with a deadpan wit that's hard to resist. --Marshall Fine

Description

Documentary filmmakers André and Rémy have found an ideal subject in Ben. He is witty, sophisticated, intelligent, well liked-and a serial killer. As André and Rémy document Ben's routines, they become increasingly entwined in his vicious program, sacrificing their objectivity and their morality. Controversial winner of the International Critics' Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Man Bites Dog stunned audiences worldwide with its unflinching imagery and biting satire of media violence.

Customer Reviews:

CINEMA........CINEMAAAAAAAAA.......2007-06-19

this is one kickass movie.not many people heard of it and frown when told it has subtitles.yes,sometimes subtitles can be a distraction (reading and watching movie can be a hassle) but thats not the case here.

plot~ben is a contract/serial killer who is documenting his escapades on film (he also serves as editor).we follow him and his crew as he goes about killing.while this isnt a wall to wall bloodfest,it is very graphic and takes no prisoners (women,children,the elderly,civil servants all get abused here) !!!

inbetween killings,we see ben as a classy guy (he loves classical music and is saddened by the architecture of a neighborhood)with a loving family.he also explains his technique and favorite ways killing/disposing of people.things go awry when a rival killer is waging a war with him.said rival begins taking out those who mean the most to him.while this is truly graphic and not for everyone,its also very comical (a run in with another film crew,his birthday party).

helpful hint~if you ca,grab the criterion/NC-17 version.

this year (2007),a movie called 'Behind The Mask;The Rise Of Leslie Vernon' has been compared to this.it received good reviews but had a very limited run.

Where would we be without criterion...?.......2007-05-20

I used to own this film, from which I purchased from my country, before the criterion edition...it was poorly packaged, cut various scenes and had a horrible transfer and zero special features. Then after ordering from Amazon, crossing the ocean to my front door I can proudly show of the film to my jealous friends in the 'Criterion' form. The story I don't need to explain because you've read it a million times, all I care about is the overall presentation.
First off might I say that I love the way that Criterion gives an essay as a standard feature,in my country thats a choir for any DVD. The films Menu is very clever, a photo collection of bens murders.
The transfer of this film is fantastic, people complain 'it's too grainy, the subtitles are difficult to read' If you saw the transfer on my countries DVD (4x3 for starters and green subtitles).....you will worship this films transfer. I would also make note that my countries DVD had censorship issues, scenes were cut which ruins plot development and characters, thankfully Criterion do not believe in censorship releasing it in its UNCUT form.
The special features are pretty average,but I am happy that they included them. Theres a great exclusive interview, and a hilarious early project by the film crew from 1989... plus more!
So in conlusion this is the best version to purchase for this film, its fantastic and I doubt you will find a dvd company that does a better job...Thank you Criterion.

Violence is big business. Might as well cash in........2007-05-07

It's good to have lofty aspirations, some dreams that exceed the common expectations. But you've gotta have a well-crafted plan and the grit to follow through. A stern determination to make your ideas a success. It all comes down to finding the right cash cow and milking it for all it's worth.
This is the story of a couple of documentary filmmakers who have found their golden ticket--Ben, the charismatic serial killer. They follow him all around, capturing all of his exploits on tape.
The camera follows Ben's bloody trail, where his harsh murders are presented in stark contrast to his witty jokes and amicable personality. There are several instances you'll find yourself laughing just moments before the most heinous crime is committed. But there is one extremely controversial scene that will stifle all joyful amusement and leave you completely stunned. I am still softly whispering "whoa, did that really happen"?
The filmmakers comment on the special features that this is not a movie about violence, it's about moviemaking. I don't buy it. Any technical aspects involved in the process gets lost in the blood and chaos. You're not fooling anybody guys. This is a great violent film though.

Hilarious dark comedy.......2007-03-27

This is what reality television may look like in the future at the appalling rate its going. Think of a Belgian "Natural Born Killers" with a film crew in tow. The story follows Benoit and the film crew making a documentary of his exploits, which include robbery, rape, murder and hiding of bodies with hilarious dialogue (at one point, the main character tells us the proper ratio of basalt rocks to add to different body types to make them sink when disposed of in a river, unbelievably funny). The film maker achieves an "off the cuff" feel with each scene to make the film feel like gorilla film making. Black and white is used well to evoke a gritty mood.

The film is gory at times and is not for squeamish. Through out the film are repeated scenes of murder. That aside, it's a great movie of dark humor and senseless violence that can be viewed with eyes open and brain off or on and still be enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Media doesn't simply reflect who we are, it tells us. It is the mirror but so are we........2007-01-18

"Black comedy" is one of the more overused expressions in media criticism, so much so that the description ceases having meaning. Dr. Strangelove is a dark comedy but so, apparently, is The Whole Nine Yards. Where Kubrick's masterpiece uses ironic humor to illuminate the absurdity of life in the shadow mutual assured destruction, shallow films like The Whole Nine Yards do the very opposite - laughing at wanton death and murder, giving us permission to guiltlessly wallow in our own pernicious whimsies like pigs in mud. At best, this look-at-how-naughty-I-am-style filmmaking is cheap, cowardly exhibitionism; at worst, base social irresponsibility.

Man Bites Dog is a black comedy. Before "mockumentaries" became the genre of preference for uncreative types with credit cards who want to tell people they made a movie, there was this little Belgian gem. Subversive in all the right ways, Man follows a camera crew and their subject Benoit, a psychopathic serial killer with a weakness for enlightened conversation, topics ranging from poetry to existential philosophy. Ultimately, the camera crew graduates from documenting Benoit's crimes to participating in them side-by-side.

In this world created by filmmaker Remy Belvaux, murder is not something that is particularly funny. Deaths are shown in unusually graphic detail, book-ended by humorous monologues by a killer and daring us to laugh. Man is particularly prescient and insightful in the manner it reveals the symbiotic relationship between and media and violence/those who commit it. Glamorizing violence is violence in and of itself, even when we couch it in laissez-faire pretensions. The camera crew does not seek to understand evil but indulge in it (by proxy and otherwise) without culpability.

It's the less obvious ways in which they perform as accessories that are perhaps the most interesting. At multiple points in the film, Belvaux (appearing as a version of himself) complains about running out of financing for his picture; the subject Benoit offers to put up the money himself. He wants, even needs an audience for his crimes - the media happily obliges (a point later cemented in a hilarious shoot out with an assassin, his own tv crew documenting his every move). Like a tree crashing in a vacant wood, one is left to wonder how many of these killings would occur if no one were there to film them. No one acts less normal than when a camera is pointed their way; charming, homicidal Benoit is no exception (for further examples, see practically every reality series participant in television history - The Real World couldn't be further from the truth). Media doesn't simply reflect who we are - it tells us. It is the mirror but so are we.

Interesting footnote: The film's original French language title is C'est arrive pres de chez vous, roughly translated as "It happened in your neighborhood."

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive

Average customer rating:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion
Great movies, strange price
Great movies, silly collection

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive
Starring: Valérie Boisgel , Jean-Louis Comolli , Eddie Constantine , Michel Delahaye , and Jean-André Fieschi
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00015WMP0
Release Date: 2004-01-11

Amazon.com

The six films in the Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack were shown together on on the International Film Channel in January 2004.

Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for a corporate coup. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. --Jeff Shannon

In Toyko Drifter, Seijun Suzuki transforms the yakuza genre into a pop-art James Bond cartoon as directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The twisting narrative takes hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari) from deliriously gaudy nightclubs, where killers hide behind every pillar, to the beautiful snowy plains of Northern Japan and back again, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Suzuki's extreme stylization, jarring narrative leaps, and wild plot devices combine to create a pulp fiction on acid, equal parts gangster parody and post-modern deconstruction. --Sean Axmaker

There's Bonnie and Clyde--then there's Martha and Ray. One-shot writer-director Leonard Kastle set out to make a film about lover-murderers that was everything Arthur Penn's movie was not. He succeeded. Consequently, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts Killers case of 1949, may be too lurid for some. But there's a heart beating inside its (tawdry) chest and Kastle clearly cared about these two crazy, mixed-up kids who should never have met. But met Martha (Shirley Stoler) and Ray (Tony LoBianco) did and proceeded to fleece several widows before doing them in. The film isn't graphic in its violence, but each murder is increasingly disturbing. Dramatic lighting and dark passages from Mahler keep the mood close and clammy throughout. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. --Sean Axmaker

1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Jean-Luc Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. --Jeff Shannon

The Belgian satire Man Bites Dog is dark, dark, dark--but also right on the money in its sly sendup of the media's fascination with violence and its complicity therein. This mock documentary has a trio of filmmakers shooting a cinéma vérité feature about a garrulous serial killer who lets the film crew follow him around as he selects victims and then dispatches them. But at what point does filmmaking become participation? These hapless documentarians soon find out as their subject eventually pulls them into his world, including a gun battle with a rival film crew and their own criminal star. Gruesomely hilarious, with a deadpan wit that's hard to resist. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion.......2004-01-20

From the other persons reviewing this 6 DVD bundle there seems to come confusion as to why Amazon would group said discs. The reason is for cross promotion with The Independent Film Channel (IFC) who will show all six movies on January 30th and 31st of 2004. Of course, all are Criterion titles as well, and the budding collector may feel compulsion to buy all of these at once to achieve a discount (an extra 5% PER title above individual prices here at Amazon) and saving on S&H. Aside from the tie-in to IFC, Amazon is supporting a contest with prizes to be given away and you can register here at this site.

All that being said, there is no other reason these titles would form a cohesive box set, but then again, it is not being sold as such. Unlike other Criterion box sets (which to this point have always showcased a single director), this is working off of a theme and not someone's body of work. There is no mention of a "box" to house all these DVDs, but instead are just bundled together in a group. Each of these films though are solid titles, with Man Bites Dog being far and away my favorite and the two Suzuki films probably being the least appealing (though, still good films).

If your first introduction to the Criterion Collection is from watching these films on IFC at the end of the month, you will come to find the company to be the Rolls Royce of DVDs. From film restoration to bonuses to retrieval of obscure cellulite, Criterion is unparalleled in the retail field and is a must for any serious film students or lovers of great cinema.

Great movies, strange price.......2004-01-17

This is a great collection of classic films. I have all
but one on DVD or Laserdisc.

I am confused on the pricing. ..

Great movies, silly collection.......2003-12-16

Each and every one of these films are fantastic...from the police procedural of Kurosawa's High & Low to the cinema verite nastiness of Man Bites Dog to the goofiness of Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. That being said, they are all different one from the other and have little in common (with the exception of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill...both by Suzuki), and other than an at times tangential relationship to the crime genre (Godard's Alphaville is "crime" film only to the extent that a private investigator is used as a plot device), it's strange why in the world these films are grouped together. Well, all of them are issued by the Criterion Collection...but even Criterion Collection boxed sets have a stronger kinship, as in the Hitchcock and Kurosawa boxes.

Truly a mystery why these are being marketed this way.

DVD:

DVD

Henry VIII And His Six Wives [1972]

DVD: Mean Guns

Mut zur Wahrheit