X
- 1993
- NC-17
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 35 m
- 1993
- NC-17
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 35 m
Summary 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.
Written By: Vincent Tavier
- 1993
- NC-17
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 35 m
- 1993
- NC-17
- Roxie Releasing
- 1 h 35 m
Man Bites Dog
67
6.6
Where to Watch
Summary 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.
Written By: Vincent Tavier
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
67
64% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
27% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
9% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
67
64% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
27% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
9% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Expertly shot in black and white on a shoestring budget (though maybe 10 minutes tool long), this fierce, smart jape gets you shaking with laughter, then leaves you simply shaking. [26 Apr 1993, p.64]
It's not closed text, but a work of art that needles and disturbs. [14 May 1993, p.H2]
This spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary is funny, scary, provocative, and profoundly disturbing...Purely on a gut level, it may offend; but as an exploration of voyeurism, it's one of the most resonant, caustic contributions to the cinema of violence since Peeping Tom.
In addition to its views on the glamorization of serial murder, MAN BITES DOG offers a wicked send up of notoriously talky French filmmaking--the most unbelievable thing about the movie's narrative conceit isn't that the crew is calmly shooting a vicious serial murderer as he goes about his business, but that they've chosen to follow the unbearable Ben. His loathsome, self-absorbed monologues are torment worthy of the ninth circle of Hell, but with a cup of black coffee and a supply of smelly cigarettes he could pass at any cafe for a run-of-the-mill French intellectual.
The result would be hilarious if it weren't for its grisly and often deliberately pointed subject matter. There seems little to do but to laugh or retch. The fact that you may well do both at the same time is probably the film's intention. It has a serious point to make about the media's complicity in violence. But, in making it, it may well defeat its own ends with too many absurdist touches. [14 Jan 1993, p.8]
The film's depicted cruelties (the rape and disembowelment of a woman, a pillow suffocation of a boy after Poelvoorde has chased the terrified tyke through the house) grossly overshadow their satiric purposes.
This wildly overpraised Belgian mock-documentary might have been a lacerating 10-minute Swiftian satire of the media's never-ending thirst for blood. Instead, it's a 95-minute reiteration of the obvious that manages simultaneously to offend and bore. [11 June 1993, p.24]
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 User Ratings
6.6
63% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
25% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 User Ratings
6.6
63% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
25% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
European Film Awards
• 2 Nominations