La Question humaine (2007) - film review

Simon Kessler is a corporate psychologist who works in the human resources department of a Paris-based petrochemicals company.  One day, Karl Rose, one of the directors of the company, commissions him to make a discrete study of managing director Mathias Jüst.  The latter’s mental state has begun to cause concern amid the upper echelons of the company and Rose is anxious to discover what lies behind it.  As Simon proceeds with his strange investigation, he can have no idea of where it will end – with the unearthing of some dark secrets from the past...

Has Fascism triumphed – not through war or some other dramatic political upheaval, but through the insidious silent creep of technology into every facet of our lives?  That is the question which is posed by this singularly disturbing film, which draws frightening parallels between the Nazi Holocaust and the way in which individuals are treated today by large corporations.  Intelligently scripted and with an extraordinary central performance from Mathieu Amalric, La Question humaine is both a provocative and daring exploration of contemporary themes and a sombre reflection on the Nazi holocaust.  More crucially, it is a highly relevant piece of social commentary that drives home some deeply worrying truths about the present direction in which we may be heading.

Nicolas Klotz’s inspired adaptation of François Emmanuel’s acclaimed novel of the same title is a thought-provoking and stylish piece of cinema, one that manages to be both visually arresting (through the slickness and stark economy of its mise-en-scène) and utterly, utterly chilling (through its bleak subject matter).  What the film shows us is a dystopian vision of the world in which uniformity and conformity are deemed to be far more preferable than individuality and creativity, and where those in control are able to abuse science and technology to create a world in which colour and diversity are totally eliminated.  It is a vision that we can so easily see reflected in our own present reality, particularly for anyone who has had the dubious privilege of working for a large company and seen first hand how such organisations operate.

What La Question humaine shows us is a world in which the nobler human attributes are not just undervalued but considered dangerously subversive.  People are hired by companies not for their personal qualities, but as work units that will merely help to maximise the efficiency of the operation (and/or service the personal ambitions of those higher up in the pecking order).  If these work units prove to be inefficient and incapable of meeting the present business objectives, they must be dispensed with – decommissioned and dumped like any other item of apparatus.

When human beings are regarded as objects, as mere biological machines, when they are appreciated only for their productive output, then we are well on the road towards a Fascist technocracy, a Hell on Earth where the human spirit has been extinguished, leaving behind a population of grey, soulless automata doing things productively that have absolutely no benefit to anyone.  What makes this film so potent, so shocking, so unforgettable, is that once you have seen it you realise just how close we have come to making this horrifying prospect a reality.  A cynic might argue that we are already there.

© James Travers 2010

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