Misplaced Pages

Human Nature (2001 film): Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 04:48, 27 January 2010 editCobraBot (talk | contribs)17,825 editsm Superfluous disambiguation removed per WP:NAMB (assisted editing using CobraBot; User talk:Cybercobra)← Previous edit Latest revision as of 23:31, 21 December 2024 edit undoSporkBot (talk | contribs)Bots1,245,011 editsm Remove template per TFD outcome 
(150 intermediate revisions by 93 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|2001 film by Michel Gondry}}
{{Infobox Film|
{{Infobox film
|name = Human Nature
| name = Human Nature
|image = human nature poster.jpg
| image = human nature poster.jpg
|director = ]
| caption = Theatrical release poster
|producer = Anthony Bregman,<br>],<br>],<br>]
|writer = ] | director = ]
| writer = ]
|starring = ]</br>]</br>]</br>]
| producer = {{plainlist|
|music = ]
* Anthony Bregman
|editing = Russell Icke
* ]
|cinematography = Tim Maurice-Jones
* ]
|studio = ]<br>]
* Charlie Kaufman
|distributor = ] <small>(USA)</small>, <br> ] <small>(UK)</small>
|released = April 12, 2002
|runtime = 96 minutes
|country = United States
|language = English
|budget = $6,000,000
}} }}
| starring = {{plainlist|<!--- Per poster billing block --->
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| cinematography = Tim Maurice-Jones
| editing = Russell Icke
| music = ]
| studio = {{plainlist|
* ]
* ]
}}
| distributor = {{plainlist|
* ]
* {{small|(United States)}}
* ] {{small|(France)}}
}}
| released = {{Film date|2001|5|18|]|2001|9|12|France|2002|4|12|United States}}
| runtime = 96 minutes
| country = {{plainlist|
* United States
* France<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/642258 |work=] |access-date=October 16, 2012 |title=''Human Nature'' (2001) |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802192825/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/642258 |archive-date=August 2, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}
| language = English
| budget = $8.6 million<ref name="JP">{{cite web|url=http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=2230|title=Human Nature (2001)- JPBox-Office|last=JP|website=www.jpbox-office.com}}</ref>
| gross = <!--- Total was calculated manually, adding the domestic gross of $705,308 with the foreign gross listed on the "Foreign tab". DO NOT CHANGE --->$1.6 million<ref name="BOM1">{{cite web |title=''Human Nature'' (2002) |url= https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0219822/ |work=] |publisher=] |access-date=December 17, 2013}}</ref><ref name="BOM2">{{cite web |title=''Human Nature'' (2002) – International Box Office Results |url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=humannature.htm |work=Box Office Mojo |publisher=IMDb |access-date=December 17, 2013}}</ref>
}}
'''''Human Nature''''' is a 2001 ] film written by ] and directed by ] in his ]. The film stars ], ], ], ], and ]. It tells the story of three people—a writer with ], a man who was raised as a chimpanzee away from civilization, and a psychologist who attempts to socialize the chimpanzee-man into a civilized member of society and tame his more bestial instincts. It was a ] and received negative to mixed reviews.


'''''Human Nature''''' is a 2001 American comedy film written by ] and directed by ]. It was Kaufman's second produced screenplay, following his debut with '']''; the film stars ], ], ] and ]. It was screened out of competition at the ].<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2001926/year/2001.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Human Nature |accessdate=2009-10-24|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref> It was screened out of competition at the ].<ref name="Festival-Cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2001926/year/2001.html |title=Festival de Cannes: ''Human Nature'' |access-date=October 24, 2009 |work=Festival-Cannes.com}}</ref>


==Overview== == Plot ==
Three characters are recounting events from their intertwined lives. Puff, a man who was raised as a chimpanzee in the wilderness, makes a testimony in front of Congress. Writer Lila Jute is giving a statement to the police after her arrest. Deceased psychologist Nathan Bronfman addresses an unseen audience in the afterlife. Their stories are told in ].
A philosophical ], ''Human Nature'' follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover who was raised in the wild as an ape. As scientist Nathan trains the wild man Puff in the ways of the world (starting with table manners), Nathan's lover Lila fights to preserve the man's simian past, which represents a freedom enviable to most. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges exposing the perversities of the human heart and the idiosyncrasies of the civilized mind. Human Nature is a comical examination of the trappings of desire in a world where both nature and culture are idealized.


Lila is a woman with a rare hormonal imbalance which causes ]. During her 20s after a brief ] gig, Lila decides to leave society and live within nature where she feels free to exist comfortably in her natural state. She writes a successful book about her naked, savage, happy, and free life in the woods embracing nature. Then at age thirty, strong sexual desire causes her to return to civilization and have her hair removed in order to find a partner.
==Plot Summary==
Most of the movie is told as ]: Puff (]) testifies to Congress, Lila Jute (]) tells her story to the police, while a dead Nathan Bronfman (]) addresses an unseen audience in the netherworld.


The partner she finds is Dr. Nathan Bronfman, a psychologist researching the possibility of teaching table manners to mice. Lila and Nathan go hiking in the woods one day. Lila sights a naked man acting like an ] in the woods who has lived as a wild animal his entire life. Lila discards her clothes and chases him until he's cornered on a tree branch. The man falls off the branch, knocked unconscious. Brought to Nathan's lab, the man is named Puff, after Nathan's French research assistant Gabrielle's childhood dog; a phone call to an unknown person reveals that Gabrielle is actually an American with a fake French accent. First with the help of Gabrielle and later with Lila's help, Nathan performs conditioned reinforcement training on Puff, inculcating him with a veneer of fine manners and high culture, in spite of which Puff still has difficulty controlling sexual urges.
Lila is a woman with a rare hormonal imbalance which causes ]. During her 20's, Lila decides to leave society and live within nature where she feels free to exist comfortably in her natural state. She writes a book called "Fuck Humanity" (formerly "Wind in My Hair") about her naked, savage, happy, and free life in the woods embracing nature. Then, at age 30, strong sexual desire causes her to return to civilization and have her hair removed in order to find a partner.


To demonstrate his success, Nathan takes Puff on tour. Puff secretly drinks heavily and patronizes prostitutes. Meanwhile, Nathan and Lila's relationship deteriorates and he is seduced into an affair by a scheming Gabrielle. Eventually Lila decides to take Puff back into the forest to undo his manners training and return him to his natural state.
The partner she finds is Dr. Nathan Bronfman, a psychologist researching the possibility of teaching table manners to mice. Lila and Nathan go hiking in the woods one day. Lila sights a naked man in the woods who has believed himself to be an ape his entire life. Lila discards her clothes and chases him until he's cornered on a tree branch. The man falls off the branch and fall unconscious as Nathan comes along. Nathan brings this man to his lab where the man is named Puff. This name is after his French research assistant, Gabrielle's (]) childhood dog. We discover later from her phone call to an unknown person that she is actually an Australian with a fake French accent. No one else ever hears it and it is never referred to again. First with the help of Gabrielle and later with Lila’s help, Nathan performs extensive manner training on Puff. Eventually Lila decides to take Puff back into the forest to undo his manner training and return him to his natural state.


Lila and Puff live naked in the woods together until Nathan finds them one day and Puff kills Nathan. Lila turns herself in as the murderer and asks Puff to testify on the waywardness of humanity before he returns to his home in the forest. Lila and Puff live naked in the woods together until found by a threatening Nathan, who is killed by Puff. Lila turns herself in as the murderer and asks Puff to testify on the waywardness of humanity before he returns to his home in the forest after a brief encounter with his biological mother.


Some days later, Puff comes back out of the forest and gets into a car with Gabrielle, they both drive off to get food. (She still speaks with a French accent). After the reporters and spectators leave, Puff comes back out of the forest and gets into a car with Gabrielle (still with a French accent). They drive off to the city to eat, while Puff looks back thoughtfully at the forest. The ending strongly suggests some unexplained collusion between the two, throwing much of the interpretation of what went on before into question.


At the end of the film, there are two philosophical passages read while the credits appear. The first is an excerpt of ] from ''Opera Theologica'' in which Ockham explains his theory of intuitive cognition:<ref>Opera Theologica p. 31.</ref>
==Visual style==
Several shots in ''Human Nature'' recreate scenes from the ] music video "]" (1993), also directed by Michel Gondry.


{{cquote|Intuitive cognition is such that when some things are cognized, of which one inheres in the other, or one is spatially distant from the other, or exists in some relation to the other, immediately in virtue of that non-propositional cognition of those things, it is known if the thing inheres or does not inhere, if it is spatially distant or not, and the same for other true contingent propositions, unless that cognition is flawed or there is some impediment."}}
==Cultural references==
The film's structure closely follows the 1921 story ''A Report To An Academy,'' by the author ], in which an ape addresses a scientific audience, explaining the difficulties he encountered while becoming a man.


The second is an excerpt of ] by Francis Bacon in which Bacon discusses ]:
==Production==
] was first interested in directing ]'s script back in late 1996, when Kaufman was still trying to get ] produced. Soderbergh's considerations for casting were for ] in the role of Nathan Bronfman, ] in the role of Puff (likely due to his character Mr. Peepers on ] at the time), and ] in the role of Lila Jute. He was about to go into pre-production when he was offered ] and after much deliberation he left the project.


{{cquote|In establishing axioms by this kind of induction, we must also examine and try whether the axiom so established be framed the measure of those particulars only for which it is derived or whether it be larger and wider. And if it be larger and wider, we must observe whether, by indicating to us new particulars, it concerns wideness and largeness as by a collateral security, that we may not either stick fast in things already known or loosely grasp at shadows and abstract forms. That we may not either stick fast in things already known, or loosely grasp at shadows and abstract forms and not at things solid and realized in matter."}}
Though not as big a success as Gondry and Kaufman's next collaboration, '']''. Roger Ebert, in a three-star review, lauded the film's "screwball charm".


==References== == Cast ==
* ] as Lila Jute, a writer with ].
** ] as Young Lila Jute
* ] as Nathan Bronfman, a psychologist.
** Chase MacKenzie Bebak as Young Nathan Bronfman
* ] as Puff, a man found in the forest acting like a chimpanzee.
** Bobby Pyle as Young Puff
* ] as Louise, a friend of Lila who specializes in ].
* ] as Gabrielle, Nathan's assistant who speaks in a French accent.
* ] as Frank
* ] as Mrs. Bronfman
* ] as Mr. Bronfman
* ] as Puff's Father, a man who acted like a chimpanzee who carried to his son after they relocated to the woods.
* Ken Magee, ], and ] as the police detectives
* Bobby Harwell and Daryl Anderson as the congressmen
* ] as Wendell, a therapist.
* ] as Puff's Mother

== Production ==
] was first interested in directing ]'s script in late 1996, when Kaufman was still trying to get '']'' produced.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=April 11, 2002 |title=An Interview with Charlie Kaufman |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/04/11/an-interview-with-charlie-kaufman |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=]}}</ref> Soderbergh's considerations for casting were for ] in the role of Nathan Bronfman, ] in the role of Puff<ref>{{Cite web |last=Laskin |first=Nicholas |date=September 2, 2020 |title=The Essentials: The Surreal Films Of Charlie Kaufman |url=https://theplaylist.net/charlie-kaufman-essentials-20200902/ |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=The Playlist}}</ref> (likely due to his character ] on '']'' at the time), and ] in the role of Lila Jute. He was about to go into pre-production when he was offered '']'' and after much deliberation he left the project.<ref name=":0" />

== Reception ==
===Box office===
''Human Nature'' grossed $705,308 in the United States and Canada,<ref name="BOM1"/> and $869,352 in other territories<ref name="BOM2"/> for a worldwide total of 1.6 million, against a production budget of $8.6 million.<ref name="JP"/>

=== Critical response ===
On ] ], the film holds a score of 48% based on 95 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "As quirky as '']'' but not as funny, ''Human Nature'' feels too forced and unengaging."<ref>{{cite web |title=''Human Nature'' (2002) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1113402_human_nature |work=] |publisher=] |access-date=April 26, 2018}}</ref> On ], it has an average score of 56 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web |title=''Human Nature'' Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/human-nature |website=] |publisher=] |access-date=August 28, 2020}}</ref>

] awarded the film three-stars out of four, lauding the film's "] charm" and commenting that director Gondry stages the film with a "level of mad whimsy" that feels "just about right".<ref>{{cite web |author=Ebert, Roger |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/human-nature-2002 |title=''Human Nature'' |work=] |publisher=] |date=April 12, 2002 |access-date=August 28, 2020}}</ref>

In a 2009 review as part of his "Year of Flops" series, critic ] argued that the screenplay, as well as the collaboration between Kaufman and Gondry (the first before '']''), had all the ingredients for a sharp social ].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Rabin |first=Nathan |date=October 14, 2009 |title=Undomesticated Case File #148: Human Nature |work=The A.V. Club |url=https://www.avclub.com/undomesticated-case-file-148-human-nature-1798218053 |access-date=December 4, 2022}}</ref> Rabin wrote that like Kaufman’s scripts for films like ''Eternal Sunshine'', ''Being John Malkovich'', and ''],'' ''Human Nature'' "uses a fantastical conceit to explore the fresh hell of existence and our desperate attempts to deny who we are and what we want."<ref name=":1" /> However, Rabin stated that Kaufman’s other works<blockquote>"…are grounded in visceral human emotions and feel gloriously, painfully alive, ''Human Nature'' feels strangely hermetic. Ifans, Robbins, and Arquette breathe incredible melancholy, pain, and confusion into their characters, but they cannot make them human. That is perhaps the tragedy of ''Human Nature'': Despite its title and abundance of brilliant ideas and clever lines, it feels strangely abstract and theoretical. Rewatching ''Human Nature'' eight years on, the film’s bone-deep sadness resonates more strongly than its cerebral ]. It’s a profoundly flawed and strangely affecting film about what Arquette refers to as the 'waywardness of humankind' and the sublime agony of being human."<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>

== See also ==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* '']''
* '']''

== References ==
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}


== External links == == External links ==
* {{IMDb title|0219822}}
* {{Rotten-tomatoes|id=1113402-human_nature|title=Human Nature}}
* {{imdb title|id=0219822|title=Human Nature}}


{{Michel Gondry}} {{Michel Gondry}}
{{Charlie Kaufman}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Nature (Film)}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Human Nature (Film)}}
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
] ]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 23:31, 21 December 2024

2001 film by Michel Gondry
Human Nature
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichel Gondry
Written byCharlie Kaufman
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTim Maurice-Jones
Edited byRussell Icke
Music byGraeme Revell
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 18, 2001 (2001-05-18) (Cannes)
  • September 12, 2001 (2001-09-12) (France)
  • April 12, 2002 (2002-04-12) (United States)
Running time96 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • France
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8.6 million
Box office$1.6 million

Human Nature is a 2001 comedy drama film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry in his directorial debut. The film stars Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, and Rosie Perez. It tells the story of three people—a writer with hypertrichosis, a man who was raised as a chimpanzee away from civilization, and a psychologist who attempts to socialize the chimpanzee-man into a civilized member of society and tame his more bestial instincts. It was a box-office bomb and received negative to mixed reviews.

It was screened out of competition at the 54th Cannes International Film Festival.

Plot

Three characters are recounting events from their intertwined lives. Puff, a man who was raised as a chimpanzee in the wilderness, makes a testimony in front of Congress. Writer Lila Jute is giving a statement to the police after her arrest. Deceased psychologist Nathan Bronfman addresses an unseen audience in the afterlife. Their stories are told in flash-back.

Lila is a woman with a rare hormonal imbalance which causes thick hair to grow all over her body. During her 20s after a brief freak show gig, Lila decides to leave society and live within nature where she feels free to exist comfortably in her natural state. She writes a successful book about her naked, savage, happy, and free life in the woods embracing nature. Then at age thirty, strong sexual desire causes her to return to civilization and have her hair removed in order to find a partner.

The partner she finds is Dr. Nathan Bronfman, a psychologist researching the possibility of teaching table manners to mice. Lila and Nathan go hiking in the woods one day. Lila sights a naked man acting like an ape in the woods who has lived as a wild animal his entire life. Lila discards her clothes and chases him until he's cornered on a tree branch. The man falls off the branch, knocked unconscious. Brought to Nathan's lab, the man is named Puff, after Nathan's French research assistant Gabrielle's childhood dog; a phone call to an unknown person reveals that Gabrielle is actually an American with a fake French accent. First with the help of Gabrielle and later with Lila's help, Nathan performs conditioned reinforcement training on Puff, inculcating him with a veneer of fine manners and high culture, in spite of which Puff still has difficulty controlling sexual urges.

To demonstrate his success, Nathan takes Puff on tour. Puff secretly drinks heavily and patronizes prostitutes. Meanwhile, Nathan and Lila's relationship deteriorates and he is seduced into an affair by a scheming Gabrielle. Eventually Lila decides to take Puff back into the forest to undo his manners training and return him to his natural state.

Lila and Puff live naked in the woods together until found by a threatening Nathan, who is killed by Puff. Lila turns herself in as the murderer and asks Puff to testify on the waywardness of humanity before he returns to his home in the forest after a brief encounter with his biological mother.

After the reporters and spectators leave, Puff comes back out of the forest and gets into a car with Gabrielle (still with a French accent). They drive off to the city to eat, while Puff looks back thoughtfully at the forest. The ending strongly suggests some unexplained collusion between the two, throwing much of the interpretation of what went on before into question.

At the end of the film, there are two philosophical passages read while the credits appear. The first is an excerpt of William of Ockham from Opera Theologica in which Ockham explains his theory of intuitive cognition:

Intuitive cognition is such that when some things are cognized, of which one inheres in the other, or one is spatially distant from the other, or exists in some relation to the other, immediately in virtue of that non-propositional cognition of those things, it is known if the thing inheres or does not inhere, if it is spatially distant or not, and the same for other true contingent propositions, unless that cognition is flawed or there is some impediment."

The second is an excerpt of Novum Organum by Francis Bacon in which Bacon discusses inductivism:

In establishing axioms by this kind of induction, we must also examine and try whether the axiom so established be framed the measure of those particulars only for which it is derived or whether it be larger and wider. And if it be larger and wider, we must observe whether, by indicating to us new particulars, it concerns wideness and largeness as by a collateral security, that we may not either stick fast in things already known or loosely grasp at shadows and abstract forms. That we may not either stick fast in things already known, or loosely grasp at shadows and abstract forms and not at things solid and realized in matter."

Cast

Production

Steven Soderbergh was first interested in directing Charlie Kaufman's script in late 1996, when Kaufman was still trying to get Being John Malkovich produced. Soderbergh's considerations for casting were for David Hyde Pierce in the role of Nathan Bronfman, Chris Kattan in the role of Puff (likely due to his character Mr. Peepers on Saturday Night Live at the time), and Marisa Tomei in the role of Lila Jute. He was about to go into pre-production when he was offered Out of Sight and after much deliberation he left the project.

Reception

Box office

Human Nature grossed $705,308 in the United States and Canada, and $869,352 in other territories for a worldwide total of 1.6 million, against a production budget of $8.6 million.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 48% based on 95 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "As quirky as Being John Malkovich but not as funny, Human Nature feels too forced and unengaging." On Metacritic, it has an average score of 56 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert awarded the film three-stars out of four, lauding the film's "screwball charm" and commenting that director Gondry stages the film with a "level of mad whimsy" that feels "just about right".

In a 2009 review as part of his "Year of Flops" series, critic Nathan Rabin argued that the screenplay, as well as the collaboration between Kaufman and Gondry (the first before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), had all the ingredients for a sharp social satire. Rabin wrote that like Kaufman’s scripts for films like Eternal Sunshine, Being John Malkovich, and Adaptation, Human Nature "uses a fantastical conceit to explore the fresh hell of existence and our desperate attempts to deny who we are and what we want." However, Rabin stated that Kaufman’s other works

"…are grounded in visceral human emotions and feel gloriously, painfully alive, Human Nature feels strangely hermetic. Ifans, Robbins, and Arquette breathe incredible melancholy, pain, and confusion into their characters, but they cannot make them human. That is perhaps the tragedy of Human Nature: Despite its title and abundance of brilliant ideas and clever lines, it feels strangely abstract and theoretical. Rewatching Human Nature eight years on, the film’s bone-deep sadness resonates more strongly than its cerebral comedy of manners. It’s a profoundly flawed and strangely affecting film about what Arquette refers to as the 'waywardness of humankind' and the sublime agony of being human."

See also

References

  1. "Human Nature (2001)". British Film Institute. London. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
  2. ^ JP. "Human Nature (2001)- JPBox-Office". www.jpbox-office.com.
  3. ^ "Human Nature (2002)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  4. ^ "Human Nature (2002) – International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  5. "Festival de Cannes: Human Nature". Festival-Cannes.com. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
  6. Opera Theologica p. 31.
  7. ^ "An Interview with Charlie Kaufman". IGN. April 11, 2002. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  8. Laskin, Nicholas (September 2, 2020). "The Essentials: The Surreal Films Of Charlie Kaufman". The Playlist. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  9. "Human Nature (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  10. "Human Nature Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  11. Ebert, Roger (April 12, 2002). "Human Nature". Chicago Sun-Times. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  12. ^ Rabin, Nathan (October 14, 2009). "Undomesticated Case File #148: Human Nature". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 4, 2022.

External links

Films directed by Michel Gondry
Features
Documentaries
TV series
Shorts/segments
Music videos
Animated films
Charlie Kaufman
Films written and directed
Films written
Novels
Categories: