L'Humanite (1999)
A film by Bruno Dumont
This is a methodical and strangely intriguing thriller. Emmanuelle Schotté is Pharaon de Winter, a dull, laconic policeman investigating the rape and murder of a young girl in the Northern French Countryside. We learn that Pharaon lost his wife and daughter, whether they died or left him is unclear. He now resides in a quiet street with his mother. One of his near neighbours is a young factory worker called Domino (Séverine Caneele), who has an oafish boyfriend, Joseph (Philippe Tullier). Their sex scenes are shown. Pharaon frequently tags along and plays gooseberry with the couple. His other time is spent riding his bicycle and tending to the garden in his allotment. He also seems to have a lot of frustration and bewilderment inside of him - in one scene he sees something in a field, howls, then runs to a railway line and howls again at a passing train. Throughout the film Dumont's camera is very methodical, with close and lengthy focussing on his subjects, we can hear Pharaon's deep breath at times. But there is one scene in particular that stands out, and reminds me that this Pharaon de Winter character is slightly similar to the Chauncey Gardner character in the film "Being There". Pharaon is on his allotment tending to his garden, then the camera shows just his head rising very slowly from the side. The next shot is further away from behind, and we can now see Pharaon levitating in the air. The film controversially won the Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999, and Schotté won the Best Actor award, while Caneele shared the award for Best Actress. It's a slow and static film, but one that is unusually gripping.
