The Perfect Human (1968)

That was an excellent one.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

"The Perfect Human" is a 13-minute black-and-white film from almost 50 years ago. It is a Danish production by writer and director Jørgen Leth, so make sure you get subtitles. Or just do not watch it at all. I am fairly surprised this film is so famous. It shows us the perfect man and the perfect woman eating, undressing, lying in bed and just existing in general. However, I must say I never found it inspiring or funny, let alone the wrong statement that perfection exists in a general sense. Perfection is something different to everybody else. But maybe this is also what Leth is telling us by showing us in the end that the perfect man was apparently left by his girlfriend, so he wasn't perfect to her (anymore). Not a particularly interesting short movie. Not recommended.

When watching this film, do not expect it to provide a satisfying ending, nor expect it to spell everything out word for word. The purpose of this film is to get the viewer to think.Leth's framing of shots is meticulous; each and every angle is designed to draw the viewer to a more appreciative and intimate understanding of the perfect human. His heavily repetitious narration and slightly mismatched word/picture relations creates an atmosphere of awkward feelings; yet, the actors provide a warm, comical relief by doing every day things that we can relate to in sometimes silly manners. The dialogue, although brief, is heavily weighted and contributes to the characteristics of how we view man and woman.However, "what" the perfect human is supposed to be is left for you to decide. Consider very carefully in this film the relationship between man and woman, the imperfections that contribute to a man's perfection, things man takes for granted, and what man truly longs for. This is an excellent film in which Jorgen Leth designed a question for "you" to interpret in your own feelings and manners: What do you think the perfect human is?

When Jørgen Leth made this short art film, I'm sure he was very pleased with himself as all the intelligentsia agreed that it was brilliant. After all, what's better than a Danish-language film made in black & white that consists of no plot but a man and woman who are non-emotive and do lots of moronic repetitive actions set to a pointless narration? This is the height of greatness for the artsy-fartsy folks who like to watch incomprehensible films and laugh in a self-satisfying way when others say they think the film is a waste of time. While I have seen many, many international films and have done a ton of reviews on IMDb, I just can't see much point to this sort of stuff BUT at the same time I hate the fare that Hollywood has been churning out for some time. Can't you want something different and yet not have it be as banal as DET PERFEKTE MENNESKE? Watch this film only if you have a tremendous need to be self-satisfied or if you actually enjoy being bored out of your mind. Don't say I didn't warn you.FYI--This banal little film is included on the DVD for THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS--a series of updated versions of this film. While not much fun to watch, THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS is better and more watchable (though this isn't saying much).

In every sense this short is an absolute gem. It reveals something very realabout humanity. Jorgen Leth is technically a masterful director, who has never created an overly impressive feature, but this film exemplifies our obsessions with our self and the image we create for ourself in order to reach some kind of true perfection. The woman is beautiful and the actor takes this simple script and inevitably makes him seemlessly leap off the screen into the mind of the viewer. The most pertinent and important scene is a scene where he eats, the beautyand grace in which he eats his food stays true with the viewer. Lars Von Trier criticizes his mentor Jorgen Leth, for embodying his image of perfection. Thus he lives a lone in Haiti in his depression, but his artistic touch in this film shows how human Leth is and how humanity can be embodied in absolute perfection.