This film is currently unavailable
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
The psychedelic physicality of this mortal coil – journey into the systems that comprise the human body in this fascinating sensory experience.
Director: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel
Overview
Filmed in two hospitals in France, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab duo behind the 2012 documentary Leviathan, dive into our innermost workings – from conversations in operating rooms to the fluid sci-fi cave of wonder that is the human body. The journey is often disorientating, winding through this world of colours and into the vortex of the cortex. A brain, an intestine, a breast, a gland… we are submerged in our innermost matter, accompanied by the muted sounds of conversations from the occupants of the operating theatre. The doctors are under pressure, the sense of scarce resources and a heavy workload is palpable.
Paravel and Castaing-Taylor’s film is a wondrous, utterly engrossing and occasionally grotesque tour of our physicality. Through it, we become a spectrum of colours, textures and warrens, as we pass through life and towards death.
Related
The Echo The Echo
Documentary 2023 102 mins Director: Tatiana Huezo
Tatiana Huezo’s poetic documentary captures a holistic view of the rhythms of life in a remote Mexican village.
Architecton Architecton
Documentary 2024 98 mins Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.
Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.
Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.
No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman
Short documentary 2025 14 mins Director: Jessica McGoff
This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.
The Outcasts The Outcasts
Fantasy 1982 106 mins Director: Robert Wynne-Simmons
Haunting Irish folk-horror, from the writer of The Blood on Satan’s Claw, about an introverted farm girl suspected of witchcraft.
Memoir of a Snail Memoir of a Snail
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 95 mins Director: Adam Elliot
Nick Cave and Sarah Snook voice an Oscar-nominated stop-motion classic of divided twins, told with adult candour and uncanny warmth.
Santosh Santosh
Drama 2023 128 mins Director: Sandhya Suri
A housewife-turned-cop is sucked into a high-profile case that has polarised the local community in this taut, north India-set thriller.
Night Games Night Games
Drama 1966 105 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
In Mai Zetterling’s scathing rebuke of European entitlement, a man returns to his childhood home and confronts his repressed memories and desire.
Loving Couples Loving Couples
Drama 1964 118 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three expectant mothers on a maternity ward recall their personal and sexual experiences in Mai Zetterling’s bold, subversive debut.
The Girls The Girls
Drama 1968 100 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three stage actresses starring in Aristophanes’ classic play Lysistrata start to draw parallels with their own lives in Mai Zetterling’s feminist comedy.