French cinema simply adores creative people. From year to year, dozens of films are released in this country that idealize writers, artists, actors and other representatives of creative professions. One of these films is the tragicomedy “My Dog Is an Idiot,” which gives an eloquent recipe for “how to screw up your life,” and then (as an addition) hastily gives a couple of tips on how to get out of this everyday crisis with the help of creativity.
This story begins with despair. The main character is a writer who published a successful novel 25 years ago and after that has never even come close to his former success. He has four children and a wife. Their marriage is covered with many cracks, which the wife seals with antidepressants. Children are at the age when they begin to take their first independent steps in adulthood. However, falling out of the parental nest, not one of them manages to immediately take off. And if this makes the protagonist’s wife even more nervous, then the protagonist only keeps an indifferent count: “Four minus one… minus two… minus three…” Soon, however, the writer will be destined to count not only to zero, but even to go into minus . In other words, break through the bottom of your crisis.
These events are shown in the film with dashing humor and are accompanied by caustic, witty phrases. If this were an Eastern European movie, the film would be filled with dense depression, screams and fights. However, in this case, all these storms of everyday life are accompanied by lyrical emotions, and instead of scandals we see intelligent silence.
At the same time, a huge dog appears in the life of the main character. One of the writer’s sons gives him the nickname Idiot. And soon it becomes clear that this dog loves to pester anyone he meets and imitate sexual intercourse with him. This is why the writer fell in love with the dog. “The idiot is the winner. He is strong and tears his prey apart. But before biting the enemy to death, the dog will first fuck him!” – the writer admires. The main character himself would dream of behaving in the same way. However, he has not had a single success in the last 25 years and has constantly found himself on the losing side. So when his life finally went downhill, this Idiot became a source of inspiration for him.
My dog is an idiot
Along with the many advantages of this film (amazing acting, deft wit in lines, elegantly constructed shots…) it has one very offensive drawback. A disadvantage that can cancel out all the “pluses”. This is the deception of the film. It’s as if the authors of the film “My Dog Is an Idiot” really wanted to idealize a creative person in the person of the main character. So even his most destructive traits (cheating on his wife, neglect of children, mismanagement, cynicism towards everyone around him) are shown in the film as nothing more than a misunderstanding. The authors of the film are in a hurry to justify literally any shortcoming of the protagonist.
After all, literally all of the protagonist’s life problems occur partly through his personal fault. He gave up on raising his children and their destinies went awry. He did not pay attention to his wife and she turned away from him. In his dreams, he preferred to fly into the past and completely surrender to the memories of his creative youth. That is why in real life – here and now – he was constantly faced with offensive disappointment.
In addition, the film repeatedly emphasizes the spacious multi-room house on the seashore with stylish interiors in which the writer lives. In addition, his wife, as far as can be seen from the plot, does not work anywhere, and the children feel very well. The material wealth of a failed writer, who 25 years ago wrote one successful novel and after that did not release anything worthwhile, is clearly overstated in the film. Very grossly overpriced.
My dog is an idiot
In general terms, the plot of the film follows the following pattern: first the main character creates a bunch of problems for himself, then he writes a novel in which he complains about how unhappy his life is, receives applause from the publisher and regains happiness. Thus, he loses his family, but receives creative fulfillment. He lets his four children and his wife run wild in order to remain alone and revel in his despair. And this destructive disorder is shown in the picture as the highest goal.
In the most emotional scene of the film, a dog runs away from the main character. It’s pouring rain outside the window and the protagonist runs out into the street, shouting the dog’s name with all his might. But who is this man actually turning to, who, of his own free will, has lost absolutely everything and is running in the pouring rain, shouting in the dark “Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!”? Isn’t it to yourself?