The Witnesses | 
| Director: Andra Techina
Actors: Emmanuelle Ba Art, Michel Blanc, Jacques Nolot, Micha Le Moretti, Xavier Beauvois
Studio: Strand Releasing
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.99
Buy New: $13.70
You Save: $14.29 (51%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 33019
Format: Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: SRED27242D
UPC: 712267272426
EAN: 0712267272426
ASIN: B0016MXK9O
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Strand Releasing Release Date: 06/24/2008 Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Ur
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Love in the Time of AIDS May 31, 2009
Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA)
****1/2
"The Witnesses" is a provocative and moving French drama set in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
It's 1983, and a young gay man by the name of Manu (Johan Libereau) has come to Paris, where his sister, Julie (Julie Depardieu), an aspiring opera singer, lives in a hotel known to be a hotbed of prostitutes. Almost immediately, Manu enters into a platonic relationship with Adrien (Michel Blanc), a middle-aged doctor who falls in love with Manu despite the fact that the young man sees Adrien as just a friend. Adrien introduces Manu to a longtime friend, Sarah (Emmanuelle Beart), a writer of children's books, and Mehdi (Sami Bouajila), her husband who works as a vice cop in the city. Eventually, Manu taps into Mehdi's latent attraction to men and the two strike up a tentative, secret relationship. But before long a mysterious and deadly disease has arrived on the scene, changing the lives of these characters - and of countless others in the world - in ways they could never possibly have imagined.
Even though "The Witnesses" deals with a very grim and serious subject, its primary focus always rests on the characters and the complex relationships that define them. Written by Andre Techine, Laurent Guyot and Viviane Zingg and directed by Techine, "The Witnesses" draws us into the lives of these people precisely because it refuses to make an undue fuss over them and how they choose to live their lives. In fact, much of the narrative feels spontaneous and unformed, almost as if the writers were making it up as they go along. The result is that the incidents don't feel contrived or forced, and we are never tempted to question their credibility. In fact, the filmmakers often seem to go out of their way to avoid doing the obvious, often building up to scenes (a dying man's trip to his sister's opera performance, a final meeting between estranged lovers, a maudlin, drawn-out death scene) that never end up taking place - just as in real life.
The characters, moreover, are richly drawn, with each emerging as a nicely balanced combination of weaknesses and strengths. Manu, for example, is basically a happy-go-lucky kid who's just beginning to find his way in life and who demonstrates that he has a tremendous capacity for joie de vive and emotional tenderness - even if his youth and inexperience occasionally lead him to hurt others in ways that he doesn`t yet fully comprehend. It becomes doubly tragic, then, when the fates demand such a harsh, unforgiving punishment from him. Sarah is a recent mother who admits quite frankly that she appears not to have much of a maternal instinct, looking upon her newborn more as a hindrance than as a blessing. Her husband, Mehdi, is a mass of contradictions as he tries to come to terms with his bisexuality, falling further in love with Manu, even while raiding dens of iniquity in his on-duty hours. Finally, Adrien is the lonely older man whose wisdom born of experience ultimately gives strength and guidance to others.
The performances are uniformly excellent throughout, and Techine's direction can be either down-to-earth or lyrical depending on which of those two seemingly contradictory tones a particular scene calls for.
"The Witnesses" is a sad movie but not a depressing one, for its canny recognition that humans have an endless capacity for regeneration and hope even in the face of unimaginable suffering carries us beyond the tragic nature of its subject matter.
Bitter textures! May 19, 2009
Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Andre Techine is a consecrated French director who has bestowed us majuscule masterworks. The main focus in his films turns around the complexities of the human soul, acting and reacting before the rules.
And this solid script gains a profound respect due the multiple issues involved. The main personage is Manu, a young in his early twenties, who arises unsaid passions in a doctor, a close friend of the family (magisterially performed by Michel Blanc, who evidently steals the show in this movie) who observes how that his love for Manu has no future. On the other hand, we have a police agent who (after an unexpected accident) suddenly realizes his affective universe includes the love for that boy. (And the irony is that he works into an unity that faces against the moral and the good customes). His wife is a free thinker woman who admits the infidelity in the couple, recently mother.
When the AIDS appears and captures Manu as one of its victims (we are in 1985) all a web of unsentimental situations will derivate since from this fact.
A film that invites you to think and rethink about the complex affective universe of the human beings.
 Far from Techine's best March 7, 2009
J. Martin (Upstate New York USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm an Andre Techine fan, but this movie is disappointing. The only characters who are at all interesting are the two primary characters: Adrien (Michel Blanc), a bitter, unattractive middle-aged gay man, and Sara (Emmanuelle Beart), a mother who can't stand her newborn baby. Those two are interesting only because they're not typical leading roles. But all the characters, including those two, are so self-centered and wooden that I never for a minute cared what happened to any of them. The pivotal character of Manu (Johan Libereau), the cute boy whom Adrian loves but who spurns him, is a shallow stereotype that could have been lifted whole from any of dozens of other movies.
The nascent AIDS epidemic that forms the backbone of the drama (the story is set in 1984-5) is handled clumsily and feels completely false, as if it was stuck on just to give a facade of significance to an empty story. In fact, the whole movie seems clumsy and poorly executed, as if everybody involved just wanted to get it over with.
The last straw for me was the idiotic casting as the American Steve of an actor who can barely speak English. That's not his fault--if Techine or the producers had cared about what they were doing, they could have hired a dialog coach to help him with the few lines he had to speak, instead of leaving him to founder on his own.
It makes me sad to see The Witnesses promoted as "from the acclaimed director of Wild Reeds," as it is on the DVD cover. Wild Reeds is a lovely, perfectly executed gem of a movie, as are My Favorite Season and other Techine masterpieces; The Witnesses is, as another reviewer said, a mess.
A Mess February 14, 2009
Daniel G. Lebryk
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This film was just all over the map and messy for me. It just never engaged me at all. The topic, love, freedom, France in the 80's (I lived there at that time) and the appearance of AIDS in the 80's was what drew me to this film. And I happen to really like Andre Techine, the director's films. The initial editing was choppy, the story line seemed to bounce all over, and it was very hard for me to follow the characters from the outset. Once the film settled in and I got to know the characters better, the relationships just had no intensity or compassion in them. The coupling just seemed robotic. People were cold to eachother, with what seemed to be very little feeling.
So I certainly apologize to those that loved this film. But it just didn't engage me at all, and I wanted so much to like this film. There was nothing off putting about the topic, it just didn't seem to have heart where I wanted it.
Technically, it's a very well made film. The DVD company made a huge mistake in printing the subtitles over the film, although most Americans would watch with the subtitles on. It was also sad that they were printed within the frame, the bottom part of the letterbox is a much better location.
If anyone was wondering, this is definately an R rated film.
Provokes mixed feelings August 23, 2008
Blue (Washington, DC United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Andre Techine's "The Witnesses" was a moving film for me on several levels. The cast and acting are generally superb. The story line which takes us back to the early 1980s and the beginning of the AIDS crisis, is probably (and disturbingly) an accurate reflection of the times which continued to echo the sexual openess of the 1970s and self-absorption of the 1980s.
Still, as one reviewer points out, there is a cold-blooded perspective that would appear to be uniquely French that made me somewhat uncomfortable with the interactions of the film's characters. For people who are supposed to care for each other to the point of obsession, there is precious little affection on offer. This starts with the female lead's complete lack of interest in her new enfant. This same character (a writer) eventually sees opportunity in a tragedy that affects her family and friends. With an American cultural background, it's hard to accept this kind of hard-hearted "moving on."
As for the gay/bisexual characters who are often at the center of the film, they are sympathetic at times, but ruthless and seemingly uncaring at others. Another reflection of the times? Maybe, but I couldn't say it's very close to what I remember of the period in the U.S.
In any event, it's an interesting film with a distinct point of view and serves as a reminder of the ongoing tragedy of AIDS and the huge loss of young lives since the disease first appeared nearly 30 years ago.
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