Dog man by Luc Besson is a film full of proposals and ideas, some of which recur in the works of the French filmmaker and others that instead open up new horizons. In view of the release in Italian cinemas, scheduled for October 12th, we offer you 5 titles to (re)watch that deal with the main themes of Dogman, as well as a bonus related to the production. And no, that doesn’t exist joker. Here they are below!
Leon – the lonely anti-hero, the dress-up game
We can’t help but start with one of Luc Besson’s most famous titles: Leon, released in 1994. There are many points of contact between the Jean Reno film and Dogman, starting with the main character, a lonely anti-hero. The plants that grow in the first part are like dogs for Douglas, the protagonist of the second. “They don’t have roots like me,” a sentence from Leon that would also fit Douglas: Both are trying to leave the past behind them, which also includes a beloved woman they had to leave. In addition, the criminal context is fundamental to both films, which are dominated by cruel and exaggerated characters: in the first, Gary Oldman’s performance in the role of a corrupt and psychopathic DEA agent is unforgettable.
Another common thread between the two films is the “disguises”. For Douglas, appearing on stage as a drag queen is an opportunity to discover himself and wear a mask that reveals his deep soul. In a more playful way, even disguises are a salvation for Mathilda (Natalie Portman): Shortly after the bloodbath of her parents, Leon opens the doors of his house for her and puts on a pig-shaped glove as a greeting; By making cute noises, it gives her some comfort. Then, during a break from “work”, both will imitate various celebrities and from time to time ask the other to understand what role they are playing.
Romeo + Juliet – Shakespeare Drag
During his time in a youth center, Douglas discovers his artistic calling thanks to a young actress who introduces him to the works of William Shakespeare. He then began performing as a drag queen and achieved great success. To unite these two elements we find Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, in which the Australian director’s contemporary remake also includes a Mercutio (Harold Perrineau), who dresses in a glittery dress and a teased wig and dances and such puts on a great show with sparkling choreographies. An operation that is anything but mere kitsch: some believe that the term “drag” (dressed like a girl) dates back to Shakespeare’s time, when male actors played female roles in the theater.
Roubaix, a light in the shadow – a human “interrogation”.
The narrative framework of DogMan is the story of his life, which the protagonist tells the psychiatrist played by Jojo T. Gibbs after his arrest in the first scene. The conversation methods between the two characters, who are locked alone in a room, are similar to those of a police interrogation in which an attempt is made to derive a confession from the reconstruction of what happened. In DogMan, however, empathy gradually develops between the two characters, with the doctor trying to understand the boy’s motivations and feeling closer to him than she could initially imagine.
An excellent recent film that reflects this discussion is Roubaix, a light in the shadow by Arnaud Desplechin. The story of this unusual polar takes place for a long time in a police station, where two officers spend a long time interrogating two young women who are accused of arson. When pressed, they reveal their experiences and their current situation in a context of poverty and hardship. While their colleagues suggest persistent and tough action, the two protagonists begin to understand women and empathize with them. Within this framework, Desplechin then takes a further step and transfers the discussion to a metafilmic level: by proposing frequent close-ups of the two actresses (Léa Seydoux and Sara Forestier), he highlights the presence of the camera and asks how far one can go for him deals with the portrayal of the characters and reveals the risk of “attacking” them, but at the same time reveals his always “human” view of them.
Don’t Open That Door – a white trash family that creates the “monster”.
In Dogman’s flashbacks we discover the childhood of the protagonist, who falls victim to a father and brother who lock him in a cage with his beloved dogs. They are the ones who created the “Dogman” who will appear shortly afterwards, and in this sense Besson’s film almost seems to tell a “positive” version of a horror classic: Don’t open this door by Tobe Hooper.
The villain of the story is the iconic Leatherface, a man with mental problems who lives in a family in the Deep South of the United States of America and was born from an incestuous relationship between his older brother Drayton Sawyer and his mother Velma is very possessive towards him . Completely under the control of his relatives, he begins to kill because he feels threatened and is afraid of anyone who enters the house. So if the context here leads to the birth of a monster, a kind of superhero emerges in Dogman.
Unbreakable – an origin story between realism and spirituality
As an adult, Douglas lives in a shed that resembles Batman’s cave, where he plans his “missions” relying on his loyal dogs, in fact his “superpowers”. But more than one of the many films about the Gotham Crusader, the context is closer to the works of M. Night Shyamalan and in particular Unbreakable. As Gabriele Lingiardi analyzed in a special on these pages, the latter is a psychological thriller that only realizes at the end that it belongs to the superhero genre, taking what is normally just a premise (the origin story) expanded into a whole film. . In addition, Shyamalan, like Besson, is characterized by a pronounced realism and concreteness in the production, which also means an abolition of the rigid separation of good and evil. An approach that is linked to a clear spiritual dimension: the urge to look elsewhere for an answer to one’s existential questions, which permeates the atmosphere from the first minute in Unbreakable, takes over in Dogman in the finale.
Night Effect – Managing animals on set
Finally, the last piece of advice is related to one aspect of filming “Dogman”: imagine how difficult it was to deal with all those dogs on set and, if you want an idea, take a famous passage from “ Effetto Notte” as a model: a classic in the “films about films” category. François Truffaut’s film tells of the difficult filming of a fictional film in Nice, amidst financial difficulties, technical problems and relationship problems. At one point we see the crew dealing with a scene in which a cat walks towards a tray left on the floor… seemingly nothing complicated, except that the cat chosen for the screen simply doesn’t want to do little thing. gesture, running away every time the camera catches him. “Next time, let’s choose a cat that knows how to behave,” commented one of those present ironically.
What do you think? How long are you waiting for Luc Besson’s “Dogman”? Tell us in the comments!
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Article in collaboration with Lucky Red