Overview
A haunting exploration of grief and morality in a small town shaken by tragedy.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Glacial
- Intensity
- Extreme
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- melancholic
- austere
- disturbing
- serious film night
- arthouse cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as an aggressively physical and philosophical work whose unusual style provokes as much irritation as admiration while rewarding sustained thought.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Its northern French setting, graphic crime premise, sexual imagery, and aggressively physical philosophical style place it within the movement's territory.
Plowed fields, the sea, flowers, sexual bodies, and the murdered child are juxtaposed as troublingly physical images.
Pharaon investigates while grieving with an almost blank face, allowing gestures, routines, and images to convey his distress.
The child murder forces Pharaon to confront inhumanity while remaining entangled in ordinary intimacy, sexuality, and community life.
Films like Humanité, and why
La haine
shared austere crime investigation, philosophical concern with human nature, and rural social observation
The Piano Teacher
shared french art-cinema intensity, moral ambiguity, and emotionally opaque protagonists
The Turin Horse
shared contemplative pacing, bleak moral inquiry, and stark attention to ordinary landscapes
The Silence of the Lambs
shared child-centered crime premise, institutional unease, and psychologically restrained procedural drama
Movie Details
- Director
- Bruno Dumont
- Release Date
- 1999-09-10
- Runtime
- 149 min
- Rating
- 6.7 / 10 (119)
Cast
- Emmanuel Schotté
- Séverine Caneele
- Philippe Tullier
- Ghislain Ghesquère
- Ginette Allègre
- Darius
- Arnaud Brejon de la Lavergnee
- Daniel Petillon
- Robert Bunzi
- Dominique Pruvost
Common questions
- What is Humanité about?
- A nearly impassive police superintendent confronts the shattering violence of a child murder while ordinary rural life presses against his fragile sense of humanity.
- What is Humanité like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Humanité as glacial, its intensity as extreme and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Humanité violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Humanité as moderate.
- What did critics think of Humanité?
- Critics broadly regard the film as an aggressively physical and philosophical work whose unusual style provokes as much irritation as admiration while rewarding sustained thought.
- Which films are like Humanité?
- Films with a similar feel include La haine, The Piano Teacher, The Turin Horse, and The Silence of the Lambs.
- How long is Humanité?
- Humanité runs 149 minutes.
