Les Convoyeurs attendent (1999)

Les Convoyeurs attendent is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1999, directed by Benoît Mariage.  The film stars Benoît Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Lanners, Dominique Baeyens and Philippe Grand’Henry.  It has also been released under the title: The Carriers Are Waiting.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


In a bleak industrial town, a disillusioned journalist, Roger is determined to make his mark on the world.  When he hears about a competition to get into the Book of Records, he coerces his adolescent son, Michel, into entering – his challenge being to open and close a door 40,000 times within 24 hours...

A bizarre melange of social realism and surrealist black comedy, Les Convoyeurs attendent paints a dark, funny, yet strangely moving portrait of the relationship between a father and his two children.  Beautifully filmed in wistful black and white, it is the first full-length film from Belgian director Benoît Mariage and features well-known Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde.  Poelvoorde has acquired something of a reputation for playing dark, manic characters, most famously the psychopath documentary-maker in the shocking black comedy C’est arrivé près de chez vous (1992).  In Les Convoyeurs attendent , Poelvoorde gives a brilliant portrayal of a middle-aged man who has difficulty reconciling his parental love for his children with an uncontrollable aggressive streak which stems from a lack of self-esteem and his experiences as a journalist.

Killingly funny in places, with some magnificently restrained comic situations, Les Convoyeurs attendent is also a hugely poignant film.  What is perhaps most striking is the way it manages to draw its audience into the worlds of the main characters in the film – first Roger, then his small daughter, then his solitary neighbour Félix (who has only his pigeons for company) and then his teenage son.  Repeatedly, Benoît Mariage demonstrates that a carefully constructed scene, suitably photographed makes dialogue superfluous.  It is these moments of awkward silence which provide the film’s most memorable moments and give it a profoundly engaging sense of humanity – albeit from an amusingly skew-whiff perspective.

© James Travers 2002

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