L'humanite (DVD)
The transcendent second feature by Bruno Dumont probes the wonder and horror of the human condition through the story of a profoundly alienated police detective (the indelibly sad-eyed Emmanuel Schotté, winner of an upset best actor prize at Cannes for his first film performance) who, while investigating the murder of a young girl, experiences jolting, epiphanous moments of emotional and physical connection. Demonstrating Dumont’s deftness with nonactors and relentlessly frank depiction of bodies and sexuality, L’humanité is at once an idiosyncratic police procedural and a provocative exploration of the tension between humankind’s capacity for compassion and our base, sometimes barbarous animal instincts.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Bruno Dumont, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with Dumont
- Conversation between Dumont and critic Philippe Rouyer from 2014
- Segment from a 2000 episode of the French television program Tendances featuring actress Séverine Caneele
- Segment from a 1999 French television-news program featuring Dumont
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Nicholas Elliott
- New cover by Vivienne Flesher