Chien

Your wife left you, you lost your job, your home, you hesitate to commit suicide? One advice, don't watch this film. It's a pretty good and efficient movie, even with a bit of dark humor, but it also can be devastating for some people in mental, psychological distress. That depends of how you watch this film. The topic has already been told in the plot line. So I won't repeat it. Now that's up to you folks. It's not a comedy, damn no. Nor a drama, though it should be...I don't know.

There are diverse ways to look at an outstanding movie like «Dog», a film adaptation of the homonymous novel by director Samuel Benchetrit. It is also true that it is a movie for a learned audience, for that endangered species that sees cinema as art (the seventh in case anybody already forgot) and as an industrial entertainment product. The first option is richer and more varied than the mere stimulation of emotions to entertain and make money. When the artistic elements are high, filmmakers use elements that take their works in unusual directions that can even threaten profit and easy tears of laughter. However, art and commerce can be combined in movies that are high-quality cultural consumer products. Which rarely happens these days.

«Dog» shows the degradation of Jacques Blanchot (Macaigne), a man who is losing everything, wife, child, home, bank account and job, plus affection, solidarity, and compassion, in a process to which he does not oppose resistance, and that seems common to the viewer. There is a satirical tone behind the story, which makes us smile sometimes, and that we find disconcerting and somehow uncomfortable, because the author does not give us information about the motivation of the events. However, we recognize them, and we know that they refer to social, economic, and political aspects, without resorting to phrases, images or banners that allude to them. The process that Jacques goes through leads to the inevitable, when he is forced to lead a literal dog's life in this phase of savage capitalism.

At the same time, we perceive an ironic reproach directed at those who overestimate dogs, to the point of becoming dehumanized in the face of the drama (social, economic, political) of their peers and prefer animals that do not judge them, that do not make demands on them, and are good company. The dogs, although we insist on applying traits of humanity to their actions, respond to instincts related to physical well-being. And we just see in the film (through the process that Jacques lives) a metaphor of how dogs go through their own canine degradation, by simulating "human traits", becoming the object of transferred affection, and renouncing their canine essence. But dogs can return to their natural state, as we see in shocking scenes in Julio García Espinosa's «Reina y Rey» and Michael Haneke's «Le temps du loup»... and show us who can also rule in a violent world.

A very necessary film, for these times of artificial intelligence and rampant cynicism.

After my first comment, I just realized that this film is categorized as an al audiences feature. HELL NO !!!! Not for all audiences. That's an outstanding, poignant, disturbing film that maybe can make many folks puke all over the joint, cry, leave the room or swith the TV set off. I LOVE this feature, from all my guts. The main character is so moving, that the most ruthless and cold blooded human being can not stay freeze before his performance. Something here reminded me C'EST ARRIVE PRES DE CHEZ VOUS or BORGMAN. I am sure this feature is blood related with Belgium. I will check rightaway. Benoit Pooelvoorde or Benoit Delepine are not so far minded from this little gem, if not masterpiece.

After being kicked out of the house and out of job, Jacques becomes the pet dog of an eccentric pet store owner.

I saw it as a satirical dark comedy (others can see it as a drama) about the current situation of Western society, and modern slavery itself (either social or labor). It is full of exaggerations, graphic and intense scenes, that make us laugh due to the situation and atmosphere in which they are placed.

It's a good example for the famous phrase "it's a dog's lufe", where the question of submission and superiority of one character is played, and the constant search for affection and (self) love of the other.

It doesn't reach the climax, which left me a bit disappointed, leaving the narrative with holes that could have been filled, and that would give a feeling of satisfaction at the end.

It takes a lot of nerve to assume such a thankless (an euphemism) part ;Vincent Macaigne (who played his game well in the average comedy "Des Plans Sur La Comète" ) is an actor to be taken seriously and he's not about to succumb to the "feel good" atmosphere which mars the contemporary French scene .

Either this hero is a meek saint or he takes masochism to new limits ; it may be another (how ironical !) story of the living being (man or dog ,it does not seem to matter anymore in that context ),who after an eventful journey ,a la "Lassie " comes back to his sweet home ..If Lassie were a man...

Our hero loses his wife (Vanessa Paradis ,whose part is almost a cameo ,his job, everything ) He is ridiculed (the bank executive) and treated with suspicion and contempt by his former boss .He seems divorced from the realities of this world : if it were not so,how could he pay such a price to the pet shop man ?When the dog he just bought gets run over , training lessons for dogs he bought from the dubious man is all he has left ;as he 's got no dog anymore ,he will be the dog.Much to the pet shop guy's surprise, he comes for the training .

Never the sentence "he's treated like a dog" had made such sense: humiliation,S/M games , bondage,homosexuality (and however this is not a gay porno movie) abound ; there's more to the picture than meets the eye : what is the dog/man searching? love,tenderness, or merely a place in this world.

You can interpret this fable according to your own sensitiveness; it may be a metaphor for our world ,where only the strong survives ;the story of an extreme masochist ; the longing for a square deal for the human (?) being ; the legitimate desire to find back ,whatever the cost , your family .

As French connoisseur "search and destroy" warned you,definitely a film only suitable for an informed audience ,not for squeamish .

In the years to come,Vincent Macaigne will be a name to reckon with.