Dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel
2022, France, Switzerland, 118 min
French with English subtitles
Five centuries ago, anatomist André Vésale opened up the human body to science for the first time in history. Today, De Humani Corporis Fabrica opens the human body to the cinema. It reveals that human flesh is an extraordinary landscape that exists only through the gaze and attention of others. As places of care, suffering and hope, hospitals are laboratories that connect every body in the world.
Content warning: This film contains scenes of graphic depictions of surgery and medical procedures.
Presented in partnership with Winnipeg Underground Film Festival.
“Equally gross and engrossing, De Humani Corporis Fabrica probes into the flesh with a scalpel to reveal not just the bloody innards but the fabric of our social construct — and it’s quite cathartic.” – Rotten Tomatoes
“De Humani Corporis Fabrica becomes not just tense and flabbergasting but also deeply moving; it gets at the idea of a kind of spiritual and corporeal transference, the knowledge that healing other people’s bodies invariably exacts a toll on one’s own.” – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
