André Bonzel shot, co-wrote, produced and co-directed Man Bites Dog (1992), and his handheld black-and-white camera is the reason it works: it makes following a killer look like an ordinary job. It remains the film by which he is judged, and it earns the attention.
Fi1m perspective
The camera in Man Bites Dog (1992) is never where a camera should be. It sits at the shoulder of a man called Ben while he explains his methods, and it stays there, steady and interested, as if he were showing it how to hang a door. André Bonzel is holding it. He also plays André, the crew's cameraman, so the film's most uncomfortable idea has his own hands and his own name on it: a professional doing his job well, with the job being the problem.
Bonzel met Rémy Belvaux and Benoît Poelvoorde at INSAS film school in Brussels, and the three made a short together, Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel (1987), before turning the collaboration into a feature. On Man Bites Dog Bonzel co-directed, co-wrote, produced and shot, which on a film with no money means everyone did everything. The cinematography is the part that is unmistakably his. He shoots in black and white, handheld, with the rough look of observational documentary, and the roughness is what sells the lie. It reads as footage rather than as a film, so we take it as a record.
The camera's presence is what gives the film its shape. Ben has someone to perform for, and a practical reason for being watched, and Bonzel's framing keeps handing him the floor. We laughed at Poelvoorde, who is alarmingly easy to like, and then noticed we were leaning in for the next incident exactly as the crew were, and we did not enjoy noticing it. Bonzel has said as much himself: "It's a film about filmmaking, and the process of making a film… Instead of being a killer, Ben could be a door-to-door salesman… It would be the same thing."
We scored it 78, and our reservations stand. The shocks keep arriving after they have stopped telling us anything new, and the second half wanders. The script, by Bonzel, Poelvoorde and Vincent Tavier, is sharpest about the crew's growing interest in their subject, and weakest when it decides that anyone watching must share their appetite. A viewer can be disturbed by a film without accepting every charge it makes against them.
After that Bonzel worked mainly as a cinematographer on other people's films, and did not direct another feature for nearly thirty years. When he did, it was Et j'aime à la fureur (2021), an autobiographical documentary assembled from family archives and amateur footage. We have not reviewed it and will not judge it here, but the subject suits him. He has always been interested in what people choose to film and why they keep the camera running. If you have not seen Man Bites Dog, see it, and watch the cameraman rather than the killer.
Biography
André Bonzel is a French film director, screenwriter, producer and cinematographer. He was born in Paris on 31 May 1961 and studied at the Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle (INSAS) in Brussels.
Bonzel co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced the 1992 black comedy Man Bites Dog (original title C'est arrivé près de chez vous) with Rémy Belvaux and Benoît Poelvoorde. The three also appeared in the film, which was made on a low budget as a student project and won the International Critics' Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Bonzel served as cinematographer and played the role of the cameraman André.
He previously co-directed the 1987 short film Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel with Belvaux. In 2021 he directed the documentary Et j'aime à la fureur (also known as Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By), compiled from personal and amateur film archives.
