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Emmanuel Schotté, Severine Caneele, Philippe Tullier, Ghislain Ghesquire, Ginette Allegre ... see more see more... , Ghislain Ghesquiere

Bruno Dumont drew attention to his work with his first film, La vie de Jesus, which was a realistic portrayal of the miserable existence of people in a small town north of France. His second film, L'h... read more read more...umanité, also takes place in Bailleul, the nondescript Flanders town of the previous film. Another similarity is that the hero of this film, Pharaoh de Winter (Emmanuel Schotte) is also a loner who lives with his mother. The house they live was owned by Pharaoh's grandfather, who was a famous painter. The opening scene shows Pharaoh walking in a freshly plowed field. He throws himself onto the moist soil to feel it and to smell it. Thirty-year-old Pharaoh is an unsophisticated and humble man. He is simple but not a simpleton. He has a crush on his sexy neighbor, factory worker Domino (Severine Caneele), a gentle soul in love with a brute named Joseph (Philippe Tullier). Pharaoh's daily life is quite dull; he is a police lieutenant, a job that does not agree with his mild temperament. He has to investigate the rape and murder of a little girl. What makes Pharaoh different from others is the suffering he goes through due to his uncontrollable empathy for other human beings. He is an emotional sponge condemned to carry the burden of all our wrongdoings. He is hungry for human feelings to the point that he would smell the face of the suspect he interrogates. In the final analysis, he also is a Jesus figure, like the hero of the first film. The message is there is no place for such figures in our cruel world. Bruno Dumont has a lot of compassion for his characters, which is evident in the way that he observes their daily lives and the conflicts that they are faced with. Explicit sexual scenes may offend some viewers. L'humanité won the Grand Prize of the 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. Actress Severine Caneele shared the Best Actress award with Emilie Dequenne of Rosetta and Emmanuel Schotte won the Best Actor award. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

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75% liked it

873 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

24 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 28 min.

Directed by: Bruno Dumont

Release Date: June 14, 2000

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DVD Release Date: February 13, 2001

Stats: 44 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (44)

  • imrealgod
    July 15, 2011
    imrealgod
    I was shockingly surprised when I found that the pace of this award winning movie was far more killing than its content. To say that it's the slowest movie I've ever watched might be an exaggeration, but it surely is the slowest movie I've watched this year. It seemed like it too... read morek generations to move ahead. But since it belonged to one of my favorite genres (mystery) and also won certain awards at Cannes Film Festival, I thought that it'd be worth suffering. Within minutes into the film, I'd predicted who would have perpetrated the crime. But I sat through it believing that I'd be wrong at least here. And I was wrong. Before you get it wrong, let me clarify that I sure was wrong..... but in predicting that I'd be wrong regarding my prediction.

    I didn't dig much into the story of the film before watching it since it was a mystery/drama. And I avoided reading reviews since more often than not they come with free spoilers. I started watching this approx. 147 minutes looooooong movie believing that it'd be a murder mystery. But it hardly moved into that direction. It seemed to be some sort of drama which was way out of my taste and for which I wasn't prepared at all. And for once (those of you who emphasize on accuracy, feel free to replace "for once" by "once again") I missed the point of the movie, if at all there was one. I still have no clue about it and I don't care to; my head is still spinning and I'm filled with umpteenth rage and violence for its makers.

    Emmanuel Schotte hardly had any expressions, and I don't feel that was a mean feat. To carry on with that blank and expressionless face throughout the movie must have been more of a drag than the movie itself. And that he survived it is worth loads of awards. I can't say about the rest of the actors.

    Recommended for those who love 'different' kind of movies. They simply can't dare afford to miss out this one; it's once in a lifetime opportunity (for, who knows, there may be no life in you sooner than later you've started watching it). Good luck if you're going to watch it.
  • gator681
    July 9, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Humanite" starts out in a small French village where everybody knows everybody else. An eleven year old girl has been brutally raped and murdered. Police superintendent Pharaon de Winter is on the case...or is he?(To be honest, he certainly is agonizing ov... read moreer the case.) He does seem to be spending most of the time as a third wheel to a couple, Domino and Joseph, who can barely keep their hands to themselves. In this kind of relationship, there seems to be something going on between Pharaon and Domino, but on a platonic level. [/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]I watched the first half of "Humanite" on Thursday night and at first found the movie extremely off-putting. I was not quite sure what to make of the characters or the situation for that matter.(And the occasional extreme close-up was not helping either.) But then I spent the following day thinking it over and it dawned on me that what was happening in the movie was fairly straightforward - an investigation of a brutal murder in a rural precinct that was simply ill-equipped and was not prepared to handle such an investigation. This definitely helped in watching the second half of the movie the following night. What makes this movie unique is its novelistic structure - incorporating the individual stories of the characters into the movie and occasionally subordinating the investigation to the background. [/font]
  • sleepykiss
    September 24, 2007
    sleepykiss
    Slow paced, quiet film with a simple, yet fascinating plot. A cop is trying to solve the rape/murder of an 11 yr old girl while trying to come to terms with his own sexuality/losses. Bit graphic, but just wonderful. Worth 2 viewings.
  • lwilson85
    March 7, 2007
    lwilson85
    Beautiful doesn't begin to describe this film. Best film of the last ten years at least. Dumont is a monster and the future of cinema.

View All Humanité Reviews

Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Entertainment Weekly

Ought to be seen, because it's a work of moral and spiritual mystery as stubbornly challenging as Gone in 60 Seconds is morally anesthetizing. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Bruno Dumont's L'Humanite has the outer form of a police movie, but much more inside. Full Review

Stephen Holden
January 1, 2000
Stephen Holden, New York Times

You probably won't feel comfortable when Humanité is over, but as you leave the theater you will feel more alive than when you entered. Full Review

Henry Cabot Beck
January 1, 2000
Henry Cabot Beck, Film.com

Audiences willing to wade knee deep in the muck and mire of the human abyss are advised to seek out Humanité at the local arthouse.

Nick Schager
October 7, 2009
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Feels like an overly deliberate meta-Bressonian prank. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
April 20, 2002
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

When viewed as an unusual film with not the usual things to say about its main character, it starts to look a lot better. Full Review

Chuck Rudolph
March 23, 2001
Chuck Rudolph, Matinee Magazine

It's loaded with pretension, and it comes dangerously close to being little more than an exasperating stunt--and in the end that's what's so great about it. Full Review

Bryant Frazer
January 1, 2000
Bryant Frazer, Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

I'm not sure what to make of this disturbingly ordinary film, which has suffering as its ultimate subject. Full Review

Arthur Lazere
January 1, 2000
Arthur Lazere, culturevulture.net

Dumont's filmic vision is so fresh and his story so rich in perception and so laden with artful ambiguity that it isn't dull for a moment. Full Review

January 1, 2000
E! Online

Though nicely photographed with an able cast, L'Humanité never clearly solves the case of Schotté's sexual repression or lost relationships, and it inches along, eventually slowing the value of its st... Full Review

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