C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992)
Directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel

Film Review

Black comedy is rarely as black as in this notorious Belgian film by the then unknown director Rémy Belvaux.  Made on a shoe-string budget, the film is a blistering (but hardly original) assault on the complicity between the media and real-life violence.

C'est arrivé près de chez vous uses the documentary format very effectively to explore the mind of a truly sick individual as he plays out his brutal fantasies.  Whilst it does so, the film exposes an even greater malaise in contemporary society, namely the extent to which the media and society embraces extreme violence as an acceptable diversion or even entertainment.   The violence portrayed in this film is carried so far that it is anything but entertaining, and many will find the film sickening to watch.

Benoît Poelvoorde's disturbing portrayal of the killer Ben is initially fresh and effective but, like much of the film, quickly becomes tiresome.  Overall, the film feels overly long and repetitive.  It would have had much greater effect as a 40 minute short, rather than a full length film.  That said, this is a hugely original film which, if you can stomach the excessive violence...

Film Synopsis

In present day Belgium, Ben leads what at first sight seems to be a pretty normal existence.  He is in a steady relationship with a girl he likes and who likes him, he has a good social life and he gets on well with his mum and dad.  The only thing that marks Ben out from the crowd is that he kills people for a living.  He doesn't do it on a grand scale, you understand.  No one could mistake him for a top-of-the-range hit man.  He's more your low-budget clean-up merchant.  Most of his victims are oldsters or working class riff-raff, not the kind of people who are likely to be missed any way.  In fact, you could say that Ben is providing a valuable social service, mopping up all the sad detritus of humanity - and for a very reasonable fee.

Keen to make a documentary about Ben's somewhat unorthodox way of earning a living, a team of journalists follow him around town as he goes about his bloody business.  They interview the killer and members of his entourage, and naturally they film the enterprising Ben when he goes to work on his victims, snuffing out mostly worthless lives with a commendable lack of ostentatiousness.  As they get to know Belgium's most self-composed murderer, the film crew become increasingly complicit in his crimes.  In the end, a grateful Ben offers to finance the journalists' next film.  It is an offer that is simply too good to refuse...