Photos from Man Bites Dog – Remy Belvaux, 1991. A violent, darkly-comic mockumentary. In black and white. Now if that description doesn’t get your blood pumping, then you’re probably a relatively well adjusted human being. If it does, you should see Man Bites Dog. Like the films of Christopher Guest, it takes an in depth look at the life of an highly idiosyncratic (a favorite word around these parts of late) and possibly deranged character who takes himself and his craft quite seriously. His craft just happens to be serial murder. From the opening scene (in which the killer Benoît Poelvoorde explains the proper technique for weighing down a dead body so that it sinks when thrown in water), the viewer is either entranced through morbid curiosity or repulsed by the brazen vulgarity and violence presented in documentary style. And at the best points these two feelings mingle and you laugh uncomfortably, knowing you probably shouldn’t be laughing at all.
