This film is brilliantly put together. The test of a really good film is if you can still picture it in your mind's eye months, even years after watching it - this film works at that level for me. The subject matter is horrifying, the sheer normalcy of the way the plot unfolds and draws in the camera crew into being part of the crimes being committed is beautifully done. The way horror can seem normal to those involved in it - has all too often been demonstrated to be very true in the real world. All in all I loved this film.

A camera crew follows serial killer Ben as he kills and steals. He pontificates on life and the world. He likes to steal from old people. As the filming continues, the crew gets pulled further and further into Ben's world of crime.The premise of a film crew following a serial killer is really edgy. The violence is brutal. The only drawback is the film crew. I don't find them realistic. The movie opens with Ben killing. The film crew should be going to cops unless they're also psychopathic killers. I need to get a sense of the camera crew from the start. Their devolution needs to be better mapped out. The whole crew needs to be as important as Ben in terms of character expositions. Although I can understand the attraction of concentrating on the serial killer. When the crew switches side, I don't feel it like it needs to be. Nevertheless, this is an interesting film that should be seen.

This 'film' rudely surpasses not only the point of cinema in its sheer purpose of entertainment or infotainment, but it also fails at mocking the media in its attempt to shock audiences by zooming in on rude violence on a daily basis to get viewer's attention.Labeling this film as a form of art would be similar to labeling actual violence and rape as art. Killing someone in a fashionable or seemingly emotionless manner, doesn't making killing and rape a form of art. In the same way, filming killing and rape in black and white, adding some clever sound tricks, bad lighting and philosophical lines straight from the cereal box, doesn't make these inhumanities funny.If there was a point to be made with this film, they should have made it clearly. Violence like this always demands a reason or an explanation, and what the film does without it, is exactly the opposite of what fans of this picture advocate for: it inflicts ruthless violence on people and makes them label it as fun and entertainment.As to the film effects and acting performances - many potential there. A waste of talent and a lack of intelligence. There were so many other ways and topics in which these could have rendered.

This French film featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was obviously not one I had heard of before until reading about it, the title certainly sounded interesting, and I was hoping it would be deserving of its placement in the book. Basically this is filmed like it is a fly on a wall documentary, as a camera crew follow serial killer and thief Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde) around as he goes about his everyday routine and life, good and bad, and with holding nothing back. Ben boasts his architectural failures, his interest in writing poetry and listening to classic music, and we see him spend time with his girlfriend, but also boasting and carrying out murders, which he sees as his craft. With the cameras capturing his activities Ben soon involves the camera crew in his escapades, and they question whether what they are filming and continuing with their film is really a good idea. When Ben murders he has no specific victims, he targets random people, most being the older generation, but also he is profoundly misogynistic, a racist xenophobe (hates foreigners) and finds postmen his favourite targets kills these types. In the end Ben finds himself the victim of crime when he finds parents and girlfriend have been murdered by someone taking revenge, and he makes his farewells on camera to the crew, but an unseen gunman kills him and the crew members one by one. Also starring Rémy Belvaux as Reporter, André Bonzel as Cameraman, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert as Ben's Mother, Nelly Pappaert as Ben's Grandmother, Hector Pappaert as Ben's Grandfather, Jenny Drye as Jenny and Malou Madou as Malou. I can imagine the controversy that this film brought in its day, where it would have got complaints for sensationalising violence and murder (Natural Born Killers did a similar thing years later), but whatever people think of it, it is a bold contribution to the genre, I admit I couldn't follow it all fully, but in general it is a worthwhile satirical black comedy. Good!