You Might Be a French Redneck If ...

Cash your welfare check. Fix your car in the yard. Make fun of the one Arab family in town. Then sneak off to a cow pasture with your girlfriend. Life in West Virginia? Non. Actually that’s the depiction of life in northern France, specifically the Flanders region, where director Bruno Dumont grew up and sets most of his films. Apparently there are rednecks in every country, and Dumont -- because he's one too -- portrays them with unflinching honesty, casting mostly amateur actors and sticking close to the basic difficulties of living in improvised rural areas. He's also not afraid to show intercourse -- so unafraid, in fact, that his first film, 1997’s La Vie de Jesus, caused a scandal in France, a country not exactly known for prudishness.

If you're scared of seeing a man's penis up close or facing up to the violence that men teach one another, then stay away from the World of Bruno Dumont retrospective at the Miami Beach Cinematheque every Friday night at 8:30 this month. Otherwise catch the provocative L’Humanité, the tale of a disaffected detective who investigates the murder of a little girl. Tickets cost $10. Call 305-673-4567, or visit www.mbcinema.com for a complete schedule of Dumont screenings.
Fridays, 8:30 p.m. Starts: Nov. 16. Continues through Nov. 30, 2007