La question humaine (2007)

Director:

Nicolas Klotz

Writers:

François Emmanuel (story)
Elisabeth Perceval (writer)

Release Date:

12 September 2007 (France)

Genre:

Drama | History | Music | War

Plot:

A psychologist discovers troubling links between Nazism and modern-day big business.

Plot Keywords:

Psychologist | Corporation | Nazism | Paris France | Singer

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Mathieu Amalric	...	Simon
Michael Lonsdale	...	Mathias Jüst
Edith Scob	...	Lucy Jüst
Lou Castel	...	Arie Neumann
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Karl Rose
Valérie Dréville	...	Lynn Sanderson
Laetitia Spigarelli	...	Louisa
Delphine Chuillot	...	Isabelle
Nicolas Maury	...	Tavera
Rémy Carpentier	...	Jacques Paolini
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louis Aguettant	...	Le chanteur de fado
Mathieu Césarsky	...	Hurleur 2
Jessica Cohen	...	La jeune fille qui chante
Cyrille Kervestin	...	Walter
Mamadou Steve Koundio	...	Le travesti africain
Julien Lacroix	...	Philippe
Philippe Montaye	...	Hurleur 1
Miguel Poveda	...	Flamenco singer
Olivier Renouf	...	Le danseur after rave
Erwan Ribard	...	Miguel
Jean-Pierre Vigneau	...	Angelino
Patrick Zocco	...	Le flic

Also Known As:

Heartbeat Detector (International: English title)
The Human Question (USA) (literal title)

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Le Mans, Sarthe, France

Company:

Sophie Dulac Productions

too many messages, badly written

First, this film is very morally flawed. It equates rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them with rounding up Jews and gassing them. This is, itself, a moral perversion.

Second, there are too many 'moral' messages. The director/producers tried to address too many issues: corporate fascism, impersonal government technocracy, the murder of the Jews, illegal aliens, etc. Rather than make one point well, they made many points poorly.

Third, it is badly written, produced, and directed. You could eliminate the protagonist's girlfriend altogether and not only not harm the movie but actually improve it. There were scenes, like the rave, that made no sense at all. There were other relationships, like the protagonists involvement with the blonde, that also made no sense. In other places, character development is flawed as is plot development. In all, you could cut over an hour from this film and have a better film.

Example: there is one excruciatingly awful singing episode that you sit through thinking the director would not torture you with this unless it was important. Alas, it is merely torture....

And that is the great weakness of this film. There are many scenes that do not enlighten, inform, educate, entertain or move the plot forward. They seem to be there for no reason at all. The producer's thinking seems that the more you ignore plot development and dramatic tension the more 'artsy' your film is.

If painfully boring is great art this picture belongs in the Louvre.

The pretense of a 'moral message' is no excuse for bad film making. This film is over rated at 6 stars.