L'humanité (1999)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Bruno Dumont

Writer:

Bruno Dumont (writer)

Release Date:

10 September 1999 (Norway)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

When an 11-year-old girl is brutally raped and murdered in a quiet French village, a police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions--because of the death of his own family in some kind of accident--investigates the crime, which turns out to ask more questions than it answers.

Plot Keywords:

Girl | Police | Police Superintendent | Police Detective | Death

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Emmanuel Schotté	...	Pharaon De Winter
Séverine Caneele	...	Domino
Philippe Tullier	...	Joseph
Ghislain Ghesquère	...	Police Chief
Ginette Allegre	...	Eliane
Daniel Leroux	...	Nurse
Arnaud Brejon de la Lavergnee	...	Conservationist
Daniel Petillon	...	Jean, the cop
Robert Bunzi	...	English cop
Dominique Pruvost	...	Angry worker
Jean-Luc Dumont	...	CRS
Diane Gray	...	British traveller
Paul Gray	...	British traveller
Sophie Vercamer	...	Worker
Murielle Houche	...	Worker

Also Known As:

Humanité (USA)
Humanity (Europe: English title)

Runtime:

148 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:18 | Canada:R | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Hong Kong:III | Japan:R-18 | South Korea:18 (DVD rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Company:

3B Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Kinomagazin: Das Schöne ist mein Dämon - Der Filmemacher Bruno Dumont" (2007)

I found it an enjoyable slice of French cinema, though it will obviously be controversial.

An enjoyable slice of French cinema. Unlike Hollywood movies - which usually force the audience into overdrive - this forces the audience to slow down and look at some of life's tiniest and most mundane features in great detail. The acting is superlative, as is the realism throughout. Goodness knows what the censors will make of it outside of France (I saw it uncut at the Edinburgh Film Festival). The basic story is a police hunt in a small town in France. But there's no gloss - both the police detectives and the other characters are full of human frailty down to the last wart and boil. they are all quite ordinary characters till you dig beneath the surface - and when you do dig their quirks seem somehow believable and natural.