People & nbsp;— dogs The world is ruled by dogs
Egor Letov
In the provincial city in the hope of a quiet quiet quiet life comes Henri Ferre, a doctor from Paris. But as it turns out, he made a slight mistake with the city: it has a very high level of violence and robbery, and women are attacked at night by a maniac with a stocking on his head. The police are unable to restore order, and more and more people are getting dogs for protection. They take them from the nursery of Mr. Morel, who is himself engaged in training. But in solving the problem of the safety of the owners, the dogs give rise to another. People begin to turn to Dr. Ferre with wounds and bites, and even deaths. As a result, residents are divided into two camps: those who have dogs and those who do not, especially for principled reasons. The conflict comes to a head when the mayor of the city becomes the victim of a dog. And now his place is likely to be taken by Morel. The doctor is sure it wasn't an accident, but the police commissioner doesn't share his confidence. High school kids have created a secret "Bite Club" and are waging guerrilla warfare with dogs. The city and its inhabitants hold many secrets, which the doctor decides to unravel with the help of his friend Elizabeth, a school teacher and a recent victim of a maniac rapist. After the attack, she also got a dog, and gradually the doctor began to notice how something changes in her character. And not for the better.
French director, screenwriter and writer Alain Gessua, in whose films stars of the first magnitude were filmed with pleasure, in his film “Dogs” continued to explore a favorite topic: social and moral problems of modern society. And, as in his other films, he uses techniques of hyperbolization and allegory, gently introduced into the plot. Gessua, as it were, brings a magnifying glass to some nodal points of the story to highlight them for more careful, detailed and thoughtful consideration, making these moments in his films larger and more significant than in reality. And if in his earlier film Shock Treatment, the action takes place in a clinic where the rich undergo a course of rejuvenation using a new method, when organs for the elixir are taken from guest workers from the servants of the same clinic, then here we see a city enveloped in violence. And the dogs that were supposed to be the “medicine” turn out to be worse than the “illness” itself, leading only to an escalation of violence and dividing citizens into a select few who own dogs and everyone else.
The topic of keeping dogs in the city is very topical throughout the history of mankind. And today, the media often skip reports that a fighting dog attacked a person, most often a child. Or that stray dogs, having strayed into a pack, terrorize the urban outskirts and suburbs. And when you watch numerous talk shows dedicated to this topic, listen to all these fiery speeches of dog advocates, one thought comes to mind – why do they, who love dogs so ardently, almost always dislike people? They say that dogs are like their owners. Does this mean that people are like their dogs? And so they see people as a potential threat, as a target, as an enemy that you always have to be prepared to attack. As Morel, wonderfully played by Gerard Depardieu, says in the film: “The ability to bite is the other side of communication.”
Morel himself considers the relationship in a dog pack ideal for human society. You have to be strong, smart, fast. And most importantly, you need to be able to bite as painfully as possible to become the leader of the pack, and then defend this status without pitying those who are weaker and more sentimental. And you need to be able to sacrifice such things so that the pack is strong. In the scene when Morel plays with the dog by the river, talks with her and with tenderness and passion repeats: “I love you”, he communicates with her not as a pet or even as a woman, but as a higher being, with a deity.
Dogs help him feel omnipotent, strong, independent. He creates in the city the society he considers ideal and in which he would like to live. To those who come to him for dogs and training, he says: “There are no evil dogs, there are evil masters.” And so he “trains” the owners too, so that they educate in dogs the qualities that he needs to build an ideal society.
Opposing Morel, Dr. Ferre and a small group of citizens, which gradually becomes smaller and smaller. Unlike Morel's supporters, they are poorly organized and dependent on his clique. Both groups say they are fighting violence, but how different their methods and results are! At night, people with dogs patrol the streets, but residents still do not feel safe. Most likely, because patrolmen consider themselves not the defenders of the city, but its undivided and unconditional masters.
The scene of the pre-election meeting in the city hall is very indicative, when more and more citizens with barking dogs enter during the speaker’s speech. And very quickly, only they remain in the hall, and the dog barking drowns out the confused speaker, shouting: “This is unbearable!” Who needs these boring words, laws, rules? From now on, the city will live by their own rules, which will be dictated by the dogs. Their opponents without dogs are too weak and sentimental, too far from the ideals to which Morel aspires. So they can be easily sacrificed. The ideal society of the future is not designed for the weak.
7 out of 10