Mr. Michel’s Dog earned a César nomination for best short fiction film, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a highly accomplished tragicomic tale that packs in a lot in only 15 minutes.
Rounding out the disc is Otaku, a 76-minute documentary from 1994. The film explores the somewhat nebulous conception of Otaku culture in Japan — the word can mean many things, but always relates to some sort of obsessive behavior. Everything from anime to teen pop stars to dolls to violence is obsessed over, and Beineix captures an often-disturbing picture of the fetishistic behavior that results.
Otaku is quite thorough, featuring interviews with people across the spectrum of obsession. Because the film tries to look at so many different types of obsessions, it tends to seem a little unfocused at times, but the breadth of material it covers certainly works in the film’s advantage.
An unfortunate technical downside is the constant presence of a narrator translating into English. Subtitles would have been a much better option, as the narrator translates both for the person asking the questions (presumably Beineix) and the interviewees, which can be somewhat confusing.
The first title in The Jean-Jacques Beineix Collection is a solid one, featuring three different kinds of films that work on their own merits. The five remaining titles in the series will be released one per month through November.
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