Les Convoyeurs attendent
1999 Comedy / Drama
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Credits
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Summary
In a bleak industrial town, a disillusioned journalist, Roger is determined to make his
mark on the world. When he hears about a competition to get into the Book of Records,
he coerces his adolescent son, Michel, into entering - his challenge being to open and
close a door 40,000 times within 24 hours...
Review
A bizarre melange of social realism and surrealist black comedy, Les Convoyeurs attendent
paints a dark, funny, yet strangely moving portrait of the relationship between a
father and his two children. Beautifully filmed in wistful black and white, it is
the first full-length film from Belgian director Benoît Mariage and features well-known
Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde. Poelvoorde has acquired something of a reputation
for playing dark, manic characters, most famously the psychopath documentary-maker in
the shocking black comedy C'est
arrivé près de chez vous (1992). In Les Convoyeurs attendent
, Poelvoorde gives a brilliant portrayal of a middle-aged man who has difficulty reconciling
his parental love for his children with an uncontrollable aggressive streak which stems
from a lack of self-esteem and his experiences as a journalist.
Killingly funny in places, with some magnificently restrained comic situations, Les Convoyeurs attendent is also a hugely poignant film. What is perhaps most striking is the way it manages to draw its audience into the worlds of the main characters in the film - first Roger, then his small daughter, then his solitary neighbour Félix (who has only his pigeons for company) and then his teenage son. Repeatedly, Benoît Mariage demonstrates that a carefully constructed scene, suitably photographed makes dialogue superfluous. It is these moments of awkward silence which provide the film’s most memorable moments and give it a profoundly engaging sense of humanity - albeit from an amusingly skew-whiff perspective. © James Travers 2002 Write a review for this film... |
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