CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games Books TV
Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Recent Releases in DVD and Video

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.



L'Humanité
WinStar Cinema

L'Humanité reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 77 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Starring Emmanuel Schotte', Se'vereine Caneele, and Philippe Tullier

A police detective with unusual methods investigates the murder of an 11-year-old girl; the film is about his daily life, including the yearning he has for his neighbor.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Bruno Dumont  
DIRECTED BY: Bruno Dumont  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 27, 2001 
Video: February 27, 2001 
Theatrical: June 16, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 148 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France 
LANGUAGE(S): French (with English subtitles) 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Dumont's cinematic style is aggressively physical and philosophical at the same time. It irritates as many viewers as it inspires, but it prompts more thought than ordinary movies ever do.
Read Full Review
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
A beautiful and compassionate work, at once stark, sensory and spiritually grasping, that challenges us to forgive even the most monstrous sins.
Read Full Review
90
The New York Times Stephen Holden
You probably won't feel comfortable when Humanité is over, but as you leave the theater you will feel more alive than when you entered.
Read Full Review
90
Film.com Henry Cabot Beck
Audiences willing to wade knee deep in the muck and mire of the human abyss are advised to seek out Humanité at the local arthouse.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A film of stunning impact.
Read Full Review
90
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Dumont's film is unfinished in the sense that some paintings are.
Read Full Review
90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's a haunting, hypnotic film that exerts an escalating grip on the heart and the conscience.
88
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A harsh, spellbinding tale.
Read Full Review
88
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Staggering, gorgeously ambiguous.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Not an easy film and is for those few moviegoers who approach a serious movie almost in the attitude of prayer.
Read Full Review
84
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Dumont's movie has virtually nothing wrong with it -- aside from the fact that it drives people crazy. Take the leap, but expect no answers. Just like life, as they say.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Confidently absurd.
Read Full Review
75
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
It ought to be seen, because it's a work of moral and spiritual mystery.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Humanite isn't like any other film: It's uncompromising, eerily affecting and wildly unresolved.
Read Full Review
67
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Frustrating, tedious and yet often compelling.
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Hanna Brown
Maddeningly pretentious and often slow to the point of tedium, Humanite is also hauntingly original and truly strange.
Read Full Review
63
Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
While Dumont's movie has its striking scenes, it is doomed to a sense of lethargy and inertia by the kind of people it ponders and the context in which they are placed.
Read Full Review
50
New York Daily News Other - Staff
Under that small but growing category of movies that break the mold but that no one but a masochist could sit through is Humanité.
Read Full Review
50
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
If only the whole thing didn't collapse in on itself, and quickly become a parody of artistic reach and terminal folly.
Read Full Review
50
TV Guide Ken Fox
This curiously empty film was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1997 Cannes film festival.
Read Full Review
40
Time Richard Corliss
Don't ask us why this minimalist drama won prizes last year at Cannes or why it is getting raves in its U.S. release.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Yoon Min C. gave it a 5:
Ugh, a French art film that gives French art films a bad name, not to mention the reputation of Cannes Film Festival that awarded this turdy leaden exercise in Bressonianisms. Bresson's stark and spare images were underlined by spiritual depth, a sense of soulful interior far beneath the exterior of distractions and despair. But this slow, grubby, and pain-in-the-ass movie has nothing beneath its heavy exterior coating of artsiness. Suffice it to say it's inhumane to let anyone sit thru L'humanite. Prospective masochist should be warned of its graphic sexual content, such as a long held shot of a woman's poon gurgling--or rather croaking like a frog--after sex. And you thought Todd Solodnz was heavyduty peddler of muckishness.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | BOOKS | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise | Partnerships                                Visit other CNET Networks sites:

Copyright ©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use