Belvaux co-directed, co-wrote, produced, edited and acted in one feature, Man Bites Dog (1992), then never made another. A mock documentary about a crew who keep filming a killer long after they should have stopped, it is enough to make him worth taking seriously.
Fi1m perspective
The man holding the microphone is Belvaux himself. In Man Bites Dog (1992) he plays Rémy, the reporter fronting a small documentary crew that has attached itself to Benoît Poelvoorde's killer, and the film's central joke is that the crew never leave. They ask questions, they hold the boom, they wait. Belvaux's part is to show us what ordinary professional enthusiasm looks like when the subject is murder, and it looks like any other job.
He made the film as a student, with André Bonzel and Poelvoorde, on almost no money, five years after the three of them had made the short Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel (1987). The division of labour is worth noticing. Bonzel shot it, handheld and in black and white, so that it looks like the low-rent television reportage it is mocking; Poelvoorde is in front of the lens; Belvaux directed, wrote the story, produced, cut it with Eric Dardill and stood in the frame. That is a great deal of one film to have a hand in, and the editing is where his hand shows most.
The cuts are the film's nerve. Belvaux and Dardill let a joke land and then move to something that cannot be laughed at, without a beat between, so the laugh has not died away when the horror arrives. We laughed at Poelvoorde for a good while, then at one such cut we stopped and were annoyed with ourselves for how long the laughing had lasted. That is the film working as designed. It is also where it starts to run out: the shocks keep coming after they have made their point, and the violence, including sexual violence, is sustained past usefulness, which is why the film was banned in places and why some viewers will not want it at all. It is sharper about its crew than about us; it assumes we are more easily led than we are.
There was no second feature. Belvaux spent the rest of his working life directing commercials in France for Quad Productions, and for several years was counted among the best in that trade. The man who made a film about a camera's willingness to serve its subject went on to serve advertisers, and did it well. He died in 2006 without returning to features.
So the view of Belvaux is the view of one film. See Man Bites Dog if bleak comedy is yours and you can stomach it; it earns the evening. Do not expect a body of work behind it. There is a short, there are adverts, and there is this, which is more than most people leave.
Biography
Rémy Belvaux was a Belgian director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for his work on the 1992 black comedy mockumentary Man Bites Dog (original French title C'est arrivé près de chez vous), which he co-directed, co-wrote, co-produced and co-edited with André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde; he also appeared in the film as a member of the documentary crew.
Born in Namur, Belgium, Belvaux trained in animation and film. He collaborated with Poelvoorde and Bonzel on earlier short films before Man Bites Dog, which premiered at Cannes and won awards including the André Cavens Award for Best Film. He later directed award-winning commercials in Europe and was the brother of actor and director Lucas Belvaux and theatre director Bruno Belvaux.
Belvaux died in 2006.
