Dog

There are diverse ways to look at an outstanding movie like «Dog», a film adaptation of the homonymous novel by director Samuel Benchetrit. It is also true that it is a movie for a learned audience, for that endangered species that sees cinema as art (the seventh in case anybody already forgot) and as an industrial entertainment product. The first option is richer and more varied than the mere stimulation of emotions to entertain and make money. When the artistic elements are high, filmmakers use elements that take their works in unusual directions that can even threaten profit and easy tears of laughter. However, art and commerce can be combined in movies that are high-quality cultural consumer products. Which rarely happens these days.

«Dog» shows the degradation of Jacques Blanchot (Macaigne), a man who is losing everything, wife, child, home, bank account and job, plus affection, solidarity, and compassion, in a process to which he does not oppose resistance, and that seems common to the viewer. There is a satirical tone behind the story, which makes us smile sometimes, and that we find disconcerting and somehow uncomfortable, because the author does not give us information about the motivation of the events. However, we recognize them, and we know that they refer to social, economic, and political aspects, without resorting to phrases, images or banners that allude to them. The process that Jacques goes through leads to the inevitable, when he is forced to lead a literal dog's life in this phase of savage capitalism.

At the same time, we perceive an ironic reproach directed at those who overestimate dogs, to the point of becoming dehumanized in the face of the drama (social, economic, political) of their peers and prefer animals that do not judge them, that do not make demands on them, and are good company. The dogs, although we insist on applying traits of humanity to their actions, respond to instincts related to physical well-being. And we just see in the film (through the process that Jacques lives) a metaphor of how dogs go through their own canine degradation, by simulating "human traits", becoming the object of transferred affection, and renouncing their canine essence. But dogs can return to their natural state, as we see in shocking scenes in Julio García Espinosa's «Reina y Rey» and Michael Haneke's «Le temps du loup»... and show us who can also rule in a violent world.

A very necessary film, for these times of artificial intelligence and rampant cynicism.