Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel

The team that made the classic satire Man Bites Dog (1992) made this experimental short five years earlier. It takes the form of an extended fake trailer for a thriller about a spy called Daniel Daniel. Throughout the course of it, there are various disconnected scenes where Daniel Daniel interacts with different characters in a series of absurd episodes, amongst others, he thwarts a paedophile, saves a scout troop from a falling dinosaur skeleton and embarks on a jungle adventure with a black-faced man. The action is often accompanied by an annoying voice-over, which mimics the type that featured in trailers at the time.

At first this is a somewhat baffling and irritating short film but once it becomes clear what it is trying to do, it does become quite funny. But like most shorts it only makes a limited impression. Man Bites Dog, on the other hand, was the real deal.

I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this original little short movie that is following the DVD for Man Bites Dog. In my world Man Bites Dog was kind of genius in a sense, because I've never seen any movie that has that kind of brood and originality. I never expected a little short done some years earlier by the same crew to be just as original and groundbreaking.. but it is.

Its an experiment with form, and it seems to be a full-length feature cut down to the highlights/basics. Its a summary movie lasting 13 minutes for a real one. Probably some kind of critical view on the average Hollywood movie who seems to be cutting out everything else than the highlights of a movie. The way most of the movie is done is highly different... even the credits.

Its really funny, and very well made. Highly recommended. A pity Rémy Belvaux never got around to more movies after Man Bites Dog, as he was in my opinion one of the most interesting directors of the 90s. He's doing acting these days I think.

This is a fun, rough and buoyant example of homage from the guys who would later collaborate on Man Bites Dog. It's an extended "trailer" for a spy movie with the hero, Daniel Daniel, and his attempts to stop a bomb plot or other. What the plot really is I can't say exactly, but there are some horrible but hilarious jokes at the expense of a black-faced character whom gets crapped on by his hero until the moment of his tragic death ("Say bonjour, bonjour!") Then there's characters we barely see but get the grand cast roll-out in the final few moments, and big action set-pieces set around what must be entire scenes from the movie spliced together (one I loved was Daniel Daniel coming to the rescue of a bunch of kids in a museum about to be toppled by a hanging dinosaur skeleton). It's tongue placed firmly in three cheeks, and in the method of precise parody ala Grindhouse there's a gas to be had even if it's hard to recognize that it's all a take-off on European trailers (bad voice-over included, as is often the case in the US). Shot in glorious CINEMASCOPE, this is not to be missed if seeking out the Man Bites Dog Criterion DVD.