Dobermann

Jan Kounen's first feature is far from subtle. The film adds a completely new dimension to the expression 'over the top'. An eloquent example of Kounen's consciously uncivilised approach is the scene when one of the protagonists wipes his ass on a page from Cahiers du Cinéma. Kounen's work is far from cinematographically sound and he obviously doesn't give a damn.Dobermann is the cartoon-esque leader of a gang of psychopathic robbers. In an idiom that is directly derived from Japanese violent comic strips, spaghetti westerns and music videos, the gang enjoys adventures with orgiastic violence. The real ogre in the film is significantly a policeman: detective Christini (Tcheky Karyo), who looks as if he has just walked off the set of a B movie about Nazi thugs and who tortures his victims with sadistic pleasure. The speed, aggressiveness and casualness of the violence is amplified by the hard and rhythmic score by the French techno-band Schyzomaniac.In Dobermann both the criminals and the policemen do not display any moral reserve in the use of extreme violence. That did not appeal to all the critics. Nor is everyone charmed by the stereotype figures that inhabit the film. But Kounen couldn't care less: he wanted to make a film with the black humour of a nihilist adolescent and he did a good job. (GjZ)