The Witnesses (Les Temoins)

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Set against the backdrop of the AIDS outbreak in the early '80s, The Witnesses takes a look at how the disease affected those involved. Sarah (Beart), tired of her uneasy relationship with policeman husband Mehdi (Bouajila) and unsure if she'll be a good mother to her newborn child, attempts to write something of real substance instead of the children's books she's famous for; her middle-aged friend Adrien (Blanc) falls head-over-heels for handsome Manu (Libereau), who arrives in Paris to indulge in the sexual liberation there; Mehdi, upon meeting Manu, becomes infatuated with the boy and they embark on a relationship. When Manu comes down with a strange illness, he shuts out his friends and family, deciding to struggle with the disease on his own while Adrien attempts to find out what is happening to him. The Witnesses is a strange fish - dealing with death, it is neither a downer nor a black comedy. Split into separate parts and sporadically narrated by Beart with lines taken from Sarah's latest novel, the film has an episodic but loose nature. Writer/director Andre Techine has a knack of cutting to the chase; he gets the hell out of a scene once the dialogue is finished, giving no time for the viewer to process what's just happened. The characters are unlikeable: Manu is naively cruel, Sarah is selfish and Mehdi takes out his confusion on those around him. The only one who keeps his head on his shoulders is Adrien, but his refusal to stand up for himself renders him a soft touch. The Witnesses is an interesting character exploration - but a tighter narrative wouldn't have gone astray.