Director Richards at least makes no attempt to deny having been 'influenced' by C'est arrivé près de chez vous, otherwise known as Man Bites Dog, in what is basically a North London retread of Rémy Belvaux's seminal Belgian shocker. So, we follow a serial killer amiably chatting away, documentary cameraman in tow, as he despatches a broad assortment of victims in a range of banally clinical ways. Richards does adopt a slightly different tack - and this would have to be the overriding justification for the plagiarised framework - to Belvaux, in that his killer is actually the instigator of the documentary and as such exercises editorial control, which enables him to dwell over several points about the nature of the voyeurism of the media and, by extension, us, the viewers. However, his philosophising to camera hits a film-schoolish note far too often, directorially too insecure to proceed without constantly trying to second-guess the critical viewer. In the end it's actually far more effectively black and satirical, as Belvaux seemed to have instinctively grasped with Man Bites Dog, when it lets its sociopath's actions speak for themselves, and our presence as witnesses isn't even acknowledged.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment