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HUMANITE Send This Review to a Friend
A riveting, enigmatic mystery-drama from France catapults writer-director Bruno Dumont into the front ranks of French filmmakers. "Humanite" is engrossing from start to finish, although it can leave the viewer stewing in frustration because it finally is open to various interpretations instead of ending with a neat answer to the nagging question of who killed the 11-year-old girl found savagely raped and murdered at the outset.
But this is no ordinary crime story that concludes with the required explanation. Dumont has instead made "Humanite" a window opening on life in a small French working class town and focusing on several of its characters. This is a film about people and their circumscribed lives. The director shows an absolute mastery of the cinematic art of creating a compelling visual terrain and a tense atmosphere. He concentrates his camera on the most minute detail and is unafraid to remain patiently fixed on scenes, much as the great director Jean Renoir did. The result is to sweep us into this world and make us feel as if we are in that town, breathing its very air and voyeuristically watching every move of the inhabitants depicted.
The central character is Pharaon De Winter, a detective who works with the local police department. As played by Emmanuel Schotte, he is sullen and withdrawn, masking whatever deep feelings or anxieties churning within. He seems none to bright, but it is difficult to take his measure because of his creepy understated manner. It is easy to consider him a suspect. There is the further twist of his being the grandson of the famous painter bearing the same name. We also know that Pharaon is suffering from the pain of having lost a wife and child, although we never learn what happened.
Pharaon would like to be the lover of Domino, the girl next door, portrayed with an animalistic earthiness by Severine Caneele, but she has a boyfriend, Joseph, played in a devil-may-care manner by Philippe Tullier. One day Phareon takes in an eyeful when he enters Domino's open door and sees her and Joseph making vigorous love in one of their extremely explicit sex scenes that Dumont boldly and vividly injects. Pharaon lives with his mother, who regards Domino as a tramp. A subplot involves a strike brewing at the factory where Domino works.
Pharaon, doing his duty, follows orders to develop leads as to the killer of the girl, which includes interrogating passengers on the Eurostar who sped past the crime scene on the day of the murder, and the story moves us along toward an expected resolution, all the while involving us progressively deeper into the leading characters and their world. There is less to the story itself than meets the eye; it is the spell cast by the writing and directing of Dumont and by the realistic acting that makes the absorbing overall impression. It is absolutely necessary to keep alert. Pay special attention to the visuals after you think the situation has been resolved, so that in the final scene, which you may not know is the final scene until the film is over, you will not miss a detail that throws the whole film into question and leaves you to ponder what the truth really is.
There is a certain pretentiousness in this obfuscation that in a way diminishes the work and makes the director seem unduly manipulative. That said, it is clear that his ploy aims to make us think of the larger issues and not view the film as a whodunit. "Humanite," which won the Grand Jury Prize and best actor and actress awards at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, is unquestionably an impressive, stark and fascinating film that is a pleasurable surprise. A Winstar release.
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