Click here to copy URL

De humani corporis fabrica

2022

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel

Documentary

6.7

121

Documentary Focuses on five hospitals in northern Paris neighborhoods. It reveals that human flesh is an extraordinary landscape that exists only through the gaze and attention of others.

	Media	Author	Review
		Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter	"This fascinating and probing look at modern surgery is a memorable experience (...) A school of flesh well worth attending (...) Penetrating and profound documentary"
		Guy Lodge Variety	"[It] takes us into the living, heaving, breathing body, using microscopes, ultrasounds and endoscopic and scialytic cameras to present its inner workings about as vividly as any nonfiction film has ever managed."
		Ben Kenigsberg rogerebert.com	"The doctors' craftsmanship is a source of both amusement and amazement (...) a movie that simply has everything: sadness and humor, death and birth, camaraderie and coldness."
		Jonathan Romney Screendaily	"Some cinema hits you in the gut –this film places you right inside the gut, and while it's not always a pleasant place to be, it's a visit you're not likely to forget"
		Leila Latif IndieWire	"The marvels of modern medicine unveil the brutal reality of what it means to exist in a human body."
		Carlos Aguilar The Playlist	"A rigorously observational piece that's as much about the insignificance of our existence, and a peculiar celebration of the reasons why it’s worthwhile staying alive"
		Rory O'Connor The Film Stage	"It's an astonishing adventure into human body"
		Keith Watson Slant	"One of the supreme cinematic examinations of the body’s magnificent malleability (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"[It] combines disorientating, brutal surgery closeups with doctors’ candid chats to powerful effect (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"The college kids at my screening, attending as part of their documentary class, thought it was awesome. And it is educational (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Rory O'Connor The Film Stage	"It's an astonishing adventure into human body"
		Kurt Halfyard Screen Anarchy	"There is a curious humour in the cinematic language here, which makes the film all the more compelling"
		Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"A deep-cut masterwork, 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica' is already one of 2023's best movies"
		Nicolas Rapold The New York Times	"The riotous visuals of innards illustrate the many ways in which our lives are embodied, but, equally or more so, that we are basically meat"
		Tara Brady Irish Times	"The vulnerability of patients under general anaesthetic is profound and upsetting (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Katz Cineuropa	"This film is a real achievement –one of the most detailed visual anatomies, supplemented by movement and sound, of what we are actually composed of to date"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.