
Le Signaleur (1997)
AKA: The Signalman
Director: Benoît Mariage
Starring: Benoît Poelvoorde, Louis Koscielniak...
Genre: Short
Runtime: 20 min
Country: Belgium
Color: Black and White
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120129/
Beautiful cinematic little gem from one of the best Belgian filmmaker---Benoît Mariage. He made some beautiful b/w surreal masterpiece like The Carriers Are Waiting (1999), Man Bites Dog (1991). Dont Miss it!
Two shady promoters of a bicycle race need a signalman at each intersection of the course, so they hire pensioners on the cheap, give them an arm band and a stick, and tell them to stop all traffic while the bikes are going by. The film follows one very old man from the day he's hired in his one-room apartment in a rooming house to the end of the race the next day. He takes the job seriously, getting his dress shoes from a locked cabinet, wearing a tie, and standing rigid at his post, the intersection of a rarely-traveled country road. His rigors are interrupted by a groom and best man on their way to a wedding and by a hedgehog.
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