Les Convoyeurs attendent (1999) - film review

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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