Trailer
Plot summary
Ben is a serial killer who talks at length about whatever comes to mind, from the craft of murder to architecture, and he plays classical music with his girlfriend Valérie. A documentary crew films his crimes, and he takes the crew to meet his family and friends while boasting of killings whose bodies end up in canals and quarries. He tells them which methods he prefers, explaining that old people are easier to attack than young couples and keep more cash at home.
Cast
- Valérie Parentas Valerie
- Malou Madouas Malou
- Willy Vandenbroeckas Boby
- Nelly Pappaertas Ben's Grandmother
- Rachel Demanas Mamie Tromblon
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Man Bites Dog (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Benoît Poelvoorde's on-screen parents and grandparents were played by his real relatives. They thought they were filming a documentary about Benoit and had no idea the footage would be used in a film in which he plays a serial killer.
- Quentin Tarantino and Steve Buscemi saw Man Bites Dog at its first 1992 Cannes screening and loved it; when Tarantino was refused entry to the second screening he swung at a security guard, and five guards wrestled him to the floor.
- The gang-rape scene got the film banned in Sweden; in the UK, tabloids demanded it be banned alongside Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant, but it was passed uncut with an 18 certificate and released on video by Tartan Films.
- Australia's Classification Board refused the uncut film over a scene of "sexual violence" and gave it an R rating only after the rape scene was removed; the uncut version was not passed there until 2025, for an Imprint Films Blu-ray.
- The MPAA rated it NC-17 for "strong graphic violence"; it played in a single US theater, and cuts removing the rape scene and toning down other violence secured an unrated version that video rental chains would stock.
- Ben's cocktail "Petit Grégory" is named after a real French murder case in which a four-year-old boy was found floating in a river with his hands and legs tied, much like the olive tied to a sugar cube in the drink.
- Quentin Tarantino said Man Bites Dog influenced his story for Natural Born Killers, released in 1994, doing "exactly what I was trying to do in the original Natural Born Killers."
