Heavy-Impact ‘Humanite’ Deals in Cruelty

Bruno Dumont, who made a standout debut three years ago with “The Life of Jesus,” returns with “Humanite,” in which he once again selects a quiet, small French town as the setting for a savage act of violence--in this instance the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. In outline “Humanite” sounds like a classic policier, but Dumont brings such breadth and depth to its telling that it emerges a compelling contemplation of the interplay of good and evil, and of sexuality and violence.

So broad is Dumont’s perspective that you begin thinking that the grisly act will serve as a grim metaphor for life’s random cruelties. News of the death hits Pharaon de Winter (Emmanuel Schotte), a police inspector in a picturesque arid town in northern France. Pharaon is a 30-something man with dark eyes of haunting expressiveness. He is in a state of anguished loneliness; we later learn he lost the woman in his life and their child two years earlier, perhaps in a difficult childbirth. Yet on occasion he can rise to a wistful smile.

He lives in a brick row house with his mother Eliane (Ginette Allegre), several doors from Severine Caneele’s Domino, a young factory worker exuding a ripe sensuality. She is caught up in a red-hot affair with Joseph (Philippe Tullier), a rugged school bus driver. Our first impression is that Domino includes Pharaon in her dinners and outings with Joseph as an act of kindness to a man clearly still grief-stricken.

But Eliane senses that Domino, even though in the throes of an intense romance, is nonetheless drawn to her son. In comparison to Joseph, Pharaon seems all the more physically unprepossessing: homely and out of shape with poor posture. But Pharaon, a man given to long gazes and much reflection, has a capacity for gentleness and tenderness way beyond that of Joseph. Pharaon is smitten with Domino, and she knows it, yet you don’t see anything, given the circumstances, happening between them.

What you do see is a man accepting his unfulfilled desires and a woman enjoying her sexuality to the fullest. Domino is not at all shy about making it clear to a man when she is attracted to him. Dumont is quite explicit about the sexual ecstasy Domino and Joseph experience with one another, but their relationship is primarily one of raw, uncomplicated sex. You begin to sense Domino sees in Pharaon the very qualities that Joseph lacks.

Just as Dumont is beginning to explore the distinction between sex and love, he brings us back to the rape-murder as Pharaon and his superior, the local commandant (Ghislain Ghesquiere) proceed methodically with their investigation of a crime that revolts both; interrogations for them are as painful for those they question: parents and their children, who were the last known people to see the dead girl alive. The film’s contemplative first part and its police-procedural middle then fuse in a powerful, extended conclusion in which we’re confronted with an evil that Dumont suggests is beyond rational explanation.

Like “Life of Jesus,” “Humanite” offers vast pastoral vistas and ancient streets, and their beauty sets off a depiction of everyday life that is routine, uneventful and soul-withering, just the sort of listless atmosphere in which sex andviolence can converge joltingly. Within this context Dumont confronts the mystery and power of female sexuality, and the ways in which it affects men. “Humanite” surely must have been a most demanding experience for its flawless cast.

It is, in turn, demanding itself, resulting in a film of stunning impact.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: Considerable sex that is fairly explicit, genital nudity, clinical depiction of rape-murder victim, language, complex adult themes.

‘Humanite’

Emmanuel Schotte: Pharaon de Winter

Severine Caneele: Domino

Philippe Tullier: Joseph

Ghislain Ghesquiere: Commandant

Ginette Allegre: Eliane

A Winstar Cinema release. Writer-director Bruno Dumont. Executive producers Jean Brehat and Rachid Bouchareb. Cinematographer Yves Cape. Editor Guy Lecome. Music Richard Cuvillier. Costumes Nathalie Raoul. Set designer Marc-Philippe Guerig. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours, 28 minutes.

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