Of the hundreds of movies I've seen, L'Humanité was perhaps the most difficult to watch, and certainly most difficult to review. On the surface level the film is tiresome as hell. The story revolves around the murder of a young girl, and the main character, Pharaon De Winter, is a policeman investigating the killing, but L'Humanité is no murder mystery. There isn't much happening in this film; it consists mainly of shots where the three main characters do boring things in a boring little French town. There is a triangle drama between Pharaon, his friend Domino and her husband Joseph, but since L'Humanité isn't a love story either, the relationships between these three are displayed in a dull, almost overtly mundane way. On the surface level L'Humanité is about real life, and not only that; it's about real life taken to it's most boring extreme.
What makes L'Humanité such an extraordinary film is not what's on the surface, but what's beneath it. A major theme in the film is hidden emotions, the inability to express one's feelings. This is displayed with the help of three excellent actors and an outstanding cinematography. Almost every scene is filled with unsurfaced tensions, conveyed both through the acting and through the visual imagery. Yet, although the visuals are an important part of the movie, L'Humanité is not a metaphoric film. When, for example, Pharaon watches a dark forest holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand, it's not important what the flowers and the forest symbolize, but what Pharaon is thinking in a situation like that. This is the true strength of the film: it's ability to show us the feelings and emotions hiding beneath the most mundane of situations.
Another strength of L'Humanité is the character of Pharaon. He talks little, and usually just stares blandly into the void. Yet he is in a strange way almost a messianic figure, carrying the pain and hurt of everyone else on his shoulders. This all-absorbing empathy is Pharaon's only outlet for his own feelings, just as sexuality is for Domino and anger for Joseph. Pharaon is present in almost every scene of the film, and although this makes us get quite bored of him, when the movie ends we still kind of miss him because we have grown so used to his persona and his mannerisms. Only a few films have the courage to display such an omnipresent character.
Though most of the scenes in L'Humanité are perfectly made, there are also a few which seem completely meaningless, and this makes the film feel somewhat too long. Also, although I liked the film's ending, I was disappointed when the murderer was revealed. The identity of the killer worked well as a story vehicle, but no true motivation for the murder was ever given. Considering that L'Humanité is totally character-driven, this is a disappointing shortcoming.
Despite it's few flaws L´Humanité is still a compelling cinematic experience, a movie which is unlike anything else ever seen on the screen. If you have the courage to try something altogether new, this is a film to see.
What makes L'Humanité such an extraordinary film is not what's on the surface, but what's beneath it. A major theme in the film is hidden emotions, the inability to express one's feelings. This is displayed with the help of three excellent actors and an outstanding cinematography. Almost every scene is filled with unsurfaced tensions, conveyed both through the acting and through the visual imagery. Yet, although the visuals are an important part of the movie, L'Humanité is not a metaphoric film. When, for example, Pharaon watches a dark forest holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand, it's not important what the flowers and the forest symbolize, but what Pharaon is thinking in a situation like that. This is the true strength of the film: it's ability to show us the feelings and emotions hiding beneath the most mundane of situations.
Another strength of L'Humanité is the character of Pharaon. He talks little, and usually just stares blandly into the void. Yet he is in a strange way almost a messianic figure, carrying the pain and hurt of everyone else on his shoulders. This all-absorbing empathy is Pharaon's only outlet for his own feelings, just as sexuality is for Domino and anger for Joseph. Pharaon is present in almost every scene of the film, and although this makes us get quite bored of him, when the movie ends we still kind of miss him because we have grown so used to his persona and his mannerisms. Only a few films have the courage to display such an omnipresent character.
Though most of the scenes in L'Humanité are perfectly made, there are also a few which seem completely meaningless, and this makes the film feel somewhat too long. Also, although I liked the film's ending, I was disappointed when the murderer was revealed. The identity of the killer worked well as a story vehicle, but no true motivation for the murder was ever given. Considering that L'Humanité is totally character-driven, this is a disappointing shortcoming.
Despite it's few flaws L´Humanité is still a compelling cinematic experience, a movie which is unlike anything else ever seen on the screen. If you have the courage to try something altogether new, this is a film to see.