Le chien de Monsieur Michel (Short 1977)

Le chien de Monsieur Michel: Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. With Yves Afonso, Denise Péron, Corinne Costantini, Henry Courseaux. An impoverished man uses his dog to get what he needs.

“First of all, u0026quot;Shadowplayu0026quot; is a dumb name for this show. u0026quot;The Defeatedu0026quot;, the showu0026#39;s original title, might have been better. But neither really captures the show that well. Set in post-war Germany shortly after their defeat, the showu0026#39;s early episodes seem to do a decent job of capturing the misery, desperation, and the broken remains of a country and its people who not only lost the war, but had their civilization bombed into submission.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd perhaps thatu0026#39;s why a story of a NYPD cop trying to help rebuild and reestablish law and order sounded like a good premise. But that epic-worthy premise gets weighed down by a search for a brother whou0026#39;s gone AWOL, run-ins with Russian military (which is okay if they werenu0026#39;t made into villains), and multitudes of minor story branches that just seem to drag the story into smaller issues that muddle the show and makes the story feel small. What gets lost is the bigger picture, of what is transpiring at the historical level during this time period. This is no Babylon Berlin, which in my opinion, is a masterpiece.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd whatu0026#39;s up with the Brooklyn accent? Kitsch does a passable job, but the show canu0026#39;t seem to make up its mind on whether heu0026#39;s a scrappy street cop or a polished NY police brass savvy in the ways of bureaucracy and politics. I suppose itu0026#39;s part of his backstory, but to me, it feels unnecessary, just like all the f-bombs casually thrown in.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDespite all its shortcomings, the show is beautifully shot, the acting is mostly good (mostly the Germans), and there is a main story that makes its way through, I think. Itu0026#39;s not entirely a waste of time to watch–if you have the time, that is.”