DogMan: We saw the new Luc Besson film in Deauville 2023

Luc Besson returns

four years later Anna (2019), DogManthe new movie of Luke Besson, was bound to get people talking. On the one hand, due to the time that separates the last two works of one of the most famous French directors – one of the longest with six years between them Giovanna D’Arco (1999) and Angela (2005). On the other hand why context surrounding this long absence from cinemas.

In 2018, the director was the subject ofa rape and sexual assault complaint by actress Sand Van Roy. A case initially closed without any follow-up, before a new complaint was filed in 2019. In 2021, a dismissal was pronounced in favor of Luc Besson. So after a call in 2022, that confirmed the dismissal orderin 2023 the highest court of the French judicial system definitively rejected the appeal and the accusation of rape.

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Luc Besson hadn’t spoken in years. At least until the first screenings of DogMan. First at the Venice Film Festival, then on September 2 at Deauville American Film Festival (in his presence, where he was warmly received by the audience). The director then highlighted court decisions in his favour and his willingness to close this case. From this everyone will be able to decide whether or not to accept the return of the filmmaker.

DogManheavy but intriguing

It remains to judge the film. In DogMana man named Doug (Caleb Landry Jones)abused in childhood, moves away from his congeners and approach the dogs. Dozens of dogs who have unconditional love for him and who obey him to the eye and finger. This connection also takes on a surreal twist, sort of superpower which allows Doug to order attacks or organize robberies with his gang.

On paper, DogMan it is undeniably absurd. Even though Luc Besson has never been known for his subtlety, the seriousness with which he approaches his subject makes him the movie is ridiculous at timesbordering on the ridiculous. Just see the use of the name Doug next to dog (dog), or the inscription God (God) read backwards by the hero to redo dog. Not forgetting the quote from Lamartine that opens the film.

However, there is something about the director’s approach something quite intriguingeven fascinating. With DogManhe wants to be Luc Besson darker, less exuberant in visual style and more direct (the final touch also leans towards horror). Almost hard to find his paw either the latest of his visual gimmicks.

Also, her character’s portrayal has to be compared to that of two of her heroines. Matilda inside Lion (1994)AND Giovanna D’Arco in the film of the same name (or even Nikita to another extent). Two female characters who share with Doug a disastrous childhood, filled with violence and abuse.

The darkest of Besson’s characters

Through the almost playful treatment of Lion and her touches of humour, we sometimes forget how much of a victim Mathilda is destined to end up on the margins of society. A teenager who smokes, who suffers the beatings of her father and the insults of her sister, and whose only female model is a stepmother who is as sexualized as possible. And after losing her family, she’s not like that anymore learn to kill people take revenge so that his reconstruction can be done.

It is the same with Joan of Arc, of which Luc Besson does not hide his madness in his film worn by Milla Jovovich. The killing spree of a young woman faced the horror of men and also eager to do so take revenge by massacring the British. The interesting thing about Luc Besson is that he basically doesn’t judge these characters. He often makes them eye-catching, but never hiding these problems that surround them and destroy them.

With DogManDoug’s instability is more frontal than this refinement of Besson’s style. The director shows violence in a raw way, always without subtlety. He also adapts the pace to him. DogMan East surprisingly slow without necessarily being boring, and a thousand miles away from the energy that emanates from the first half of the French author’s filmography. Highlighted by a fairly disembodied final shootout.

Added to this is the composition of Eric Serra, banal and challenging, but in the manner of this surprising bias of staging and editing by Luc Besson. There is no doubt that for other administrators this would have been considered simply a defect. In Besson it becomes relevant and disturbing strangeness.

Caleb Landy Jones impresses

The director is very serious far from the tone in which we know it. What once again becomes a defect and an asset DogMan. With the character of Doug, Luc Besson in no way hides his madness in pointing the responsibility of the adult world. His rejection of humanity, at this stage of his career, he wonders. Because even if inside The fifth element (1997) Leeloo was terrified of the wars committed by Man, she found hope again thanks to love.

Doug did of the love of his dogs. It is therefore a much less pleasant character than Matilde, but capable of unleashing the same anger as Joan of Arc by freeing herself amazing magnetism thanks to the inhabited interpretation of Caleb Landry Jones.

Perhaps it is not so trivial that this male hero disguises himself and finds a part of humanity only within himself from a drag queen bar. A representation queer which Luc Besson pulls off well, with even a heartwarming sequence where Caleb Landry Jones becomes an extraordinary incarnation of Edith Piaf.

The actor convinces, even in his exuberance, also because his character is fully aware of what it is, and is capable of questioning. Or at least, of accepting one’s mistakes (and one’s destiny) during the interviews with a psychiatrist to whom he reveals his whole story (on the same principle as Domino by Tony Scott).

In the end, despite its shortcomings, DogMan remains complex to approach and receive as soon as it is put into the perspective of Luc Besson’s work. The director is far from its best (could it still be from the late 1990s?), but he has already proposed it much worse (Anna, Lucy). And it is likely that if another director had been behind the camera, the feature film would have aroused fewer reactions, both positive and negative.

DogMan will hit theaters on September 27, 2023. Above is the trailer.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.