Man Bites Dog

Original title: C'est arrivé près de chez vous

1992
NC-17
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

42K

YOUR RATING

Benoît Poelvoorde in Man Bites Dog (1992)

Comedy Crime Drama

A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin lending a hand.A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin lending a hand.A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin lending a hand.

See production, box office & company info

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

42K

YOUR RATING

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 7 wins & 5 nominations

Photos47

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
According to an essay André wrote, Ben's family didn't know anything about the plot of the film. Ben's mother and grandparents thought they were filming raw footage of Ben, and had no idea that the footage was going to be used in a film in which Ben is a serial killer. Ben's mother was shocked to see her son behind bars, when she comes to visit him in prison.

Goofs
At the beginning, Benoît says that four times a child's body weight is needed to sink a dead child. However, at the bar where they drink Dead Baby Boys, Benoît asks René for the weight ratio needed to sink a child, to which René replies "Twice," and Benoit says, "Right!"

Quotes
Ben: Once I buried two Arabs in a wall over there... Facing Mecca, of course.

Alternate versions
ENDING SPOILERS - In some versions, the final shot, where everyone dies, lasts until the film runs out of the camera, which leaves a blank white screen after the film slips out of the camera's gate. In other versions, there is a dissolve between the the final shot and the blank screen at a much sooner point--and the viewer does not see the film slip out of the gate. The Criterion Collection edition released in 2002 has the latter version of the final shot.

Connections
Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #12.2 (1999)

Soundtracks
Ice Ice Baby
Written by David Bowie, Earthquake (as Floyd Brown), John Deacon, Mario 'Chocolate' Johnson (as Mario Johnson), Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor & Vanilla Ice (as Robert Van Winkle)
Performed by Vanilla Ice
Courtesy of Capitol Records, LLC
Contains a sample of "Under Pressure"
Performed by Queen & David Bowie
Courtesy of Hollywood Records, Inc. for USA & Canada and Courtesy of Island Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews249

Review

Featured review

In defense

This movie is a piece of art: shocking and disturbing, while at the same time funny as hell in a raw "should-I-be-laughing-or-should-I-be-ashamed" kind of way.

It gives an insight in the very realistically portrayed life of Ben, a serial killer with an impressionable charisma.

Most people who commented on this film either love it or hate it. The division seems mostly geographical though: most Americans can't seem to understand the tongue-in- cheekness of this movie.

Probably it has to do with the fake-documentary nature of the movie, which is clearly western-european. Anyone who has ever seen American documentaries knows they have a different pace and way of treating images. Those who are used to belgian/french/ dutch/german documentaries will recognise the style of the so-called "intimate" documentaries.

The pivotal point is the moment a relationship develops "beyond" the documentary relationship of the filmmakers and their subject (they take Ben's money to finish the movie).

When watching this movie, try to imagine that this *could* be a real movie:

documentaries about terrorists, drugdealers, and even mercenaries (the closest thing to an actual serial killer) have been made, and some of them were very close to their subject.

It is *not* a "black comedy" in the classical sense of the word; more like a "Clockwork Orange" for the nineties. Where "A Clockwork Orange" bathed in the design of the seventies, this movie bathes in the "larger-than-life" invasiveness of modern-day reality-tv-style television. Anyone who has seen shows like "cops" or "Big Brother" will know what I'm talking about. It asks the big documentary question: in how far does the observed change the observer? It makes a statement, not about violence, but about the observer of violence. The way it is portrayed shows the art of the (very low-budget) crew: it grips your guts without fancy effects or gory protrayal of gore: it shows fear, despair and psychological emptyness, by showing emotions! This should be recommended viewing (and debating) to anyone making documentary films.

helpful•102