Can you face his calmness to evil, his cruel methods, and his innocence? What is the reason for not being able to face it? You will definitely have the urge to experience this. Before answering this question, you need to reflect on how comfortable you are in the moral cell.
Assuming that you can use a film method, specifically, a documentary method to give you such a situation, let's imagine, how to give it to you? We must remember the author of the documentary, to put it simply, the person who carried the camera on his shoulder, he used the machine to record, simulate his eyes, and then let you watch instead of your eyes.
In this process, the photographer is actually invisible. We only know that one of our on-site agents who pointed the camera at the pistol and watched it fired. Yes, we are not present. This distance is very important. It is a transparent sponge. Generally speaking, the softness is enough to absorb the emotional impact of most people. We will feel a certain degree of fear, but we still remember in our hearts, no, I am not at the scene, I am not a murderer.
Because the photographer, our agent, has not yet appeared, and has always existed safely behind the image. Otherwise how can we see this movie? His safety is our safety.
The Belgian film "Man bites a dog" is a film murderer. It murdered this sense of security: it allowed the photographer to participate in the murder and killed the photographer. Therefore, watching this film, we are also murderers, and we finally Die.
This is a pseudo-documentary-style movie filmed by several college students. The general content is: a film crew followed the life of a killer, recording his many murders, rapes, and the process of throwing bodies, as well as his family. , Lover, artistic concept, love for poetry, and finally being killed, etc. It uses a very realistic documentary style, making it almost impossible for the audience to distinguish between true and false.
The shockingness of this movie is not worth talking about if it is only the subject matter. The most shocking thing about it is that it shoots murders, and it murders itself. It is the sense of security in murder that I mentioned earlier: it is realized through the murder of a "documentary" and the murder of a "moral refuge for spectators." Its murder weapon is very simple, it is a camera.
"Man bites a dog" uses documentary grammar to express, but erases the innocence of the documentary author. The basic ethics of directors, sound engineers, photographers, etc. in conventional documentaries is not to intervene or intervene in the scene in order to maintain sufficient objectivity. But non-intervention itself is subjective, and this morality can only have a vectorial correctness, and it cannot be absolutely achieved. "Man Bites a Dog" is a feature film. It does not have the moral constraints of a documentary, so it can jump out of this morality: the film crew communicated with him and watched his assault during the shooting of the killer. Realistic relationships are the objects of the movie's questioning or mocking. In this reality, it is impossible for these people not to be influenced by the killer.
Therefore, when these bystanders began to help the murderer press the children's legs and feet to ensure that their filming can continue, they uncontrollably entered another situation of "allowing the murder to continue". This is a door, one side is a safe room, and the other side is a sinful world. When this door opens, darkness blows on your face, and the safety light is extinguished.
At this time, no one can remain objective except the camera. The "documentary" died at this moment, but it also achieved an objective absolute value: there will never be a subjective perspective or subjective choice, only the camera.
The first peak of this situation occurred when the film crew participated in the killer gang rape game: the sound engineer dangled the microphone and raped the woman, the photographer lowered and fixed the camera, left it, and entered the woman's crotch. At this time, there are no bystanders at the scene, only the camera is still moving and recording.
The second peak of this situation is at the end: the killer's gun fell, the photographer dropped the camera, the machine landed and tilted down, recording the scene where the photographer escaped and fell to the ground. The characters are dead, and the camera continues to run and record. Until the film runs out. The movie ends.
Watching this movie, you will be in great disgust and consternation, but you can't stop. In this movie, you don't have a preconceived on-site agent. There is no distance between you and the camera, so there is no distance from the scene, and no distance from fear.
Your moral superiority and moral judgment have no weapons or fortifications here, but a fragile system that gradually collapses. You have never watched a murder so unobstructed. What's more terrifying is that all this is just a fictional story.
Yes, watching this movie makes you fooled by it. But without looking at it, you continue to play with yourself unconsciously and safely for a long time. That's it.
View more about Man Bites Dog reviews
