Les Témoins, or The Witnesses is the most recent French film export to arrive in the United States.
The film takes the viewer back to the mid '80s, when AIDS revealed itself to the world and became an international epidemic.
Les Témoins depicts the course of a year in the lives of a small circle of people.
The central figure is a young novelist, Sarah, who, despite the birth of her first child, remains in an open relationship with her police officer husband, Mehdi (played by Sami Bouajila.)
Adrien, a friend of Sarah's, is a doctor who finds the love of his life in an 18-year-old boy, Manu, who lives in a whorehouse with his older sister.
Unfortunately, Adrien's love goes unrequited as Mehdi soon begins a passionate homosexual affair with Manu. Tearing the seams of friendship and intimacy, Manu's short existence ends in the arrival of a mysterious and unknown disease.
Renowned director and co-writer André Techiné revels in the provocative. Graphic homosexual relationships, AIDS, death, promiscuity and neglect of children are all bunched together to form the plot.
This isn't to say that the film doesn't succeed, but it is evident that Techiné wanted to provoke the viewer.
At times, Techiné appeared more focused on the shock factor of the film rather than on the actual mechanics of the script, resulting in a number of problems in the film.
Techiné chose to separate Les Témoins into three parts, which veered toward a more "showing" than "telling" manner in order to divide the journeys of the characters.
Part One, called "Happy Days," is set in the summer of 1984, when Sarah gives birth, Adrien meets Manu, Manu sleeps with Sarah's husband and they all get together on weekends to bask in the French sunlight.
Once Manu discovers that he has contracted AIDS, the viewer doesn't need to be explicitly told that things are going to head downhill.
In addition, the film is sporadically narrated by Sarah, as if she is writing the story we are watching (which is indeed what happens at the end of the film, when Sarah escapes writer's block with Manu's story). However, Techiné should have allowed Sarah to narrate the entire film or forgotten it altogether. Instead, her uneven voiceovers seem out of place.
Mehdi is a Parisian cop who focuses on prostitution in the city.
Techiné never resolves the importance of Mehdi's obsession with ending the city's infamous prostitution rings in connection with his homosexual tendencies.
Additionally, many of the characters seem to lack any real depth.
This is especially true of the female leads. Sarah (Emmanuelle Béart), while considered "the hottie" of the film, flouncing around in flimsy yellow dresses, lacks any real presence and is unbelievable as a novelist.
She does, however, manage to portray the negligent mother adequately.
Julie Depardieu, daughter of famous Gérard, plays Julie, Manu's opera-singer sister who lives in poverty until the end of the film when she plays Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro.
While Depardieu did a fine job, her character was totally removed from the rest of the plot and characters. She spends most of the film alone and unrealistically content with this solitary life.
Techiné missed a prime opportunity to explore Julie's artist figure and the emotions associated with the Manu's illness. Depardieu's delicate features would have lent themselves to a touching melancholy.
Manu (played by Johan Libéreau), while sweet and likeable, is relatively shallow for a lead role. He basically skips through the film, smiling and only appears to be driven through life by sex.
Only towards the very end, after this death, the audience gets a window into his psyche with a recording of his life story.
Michel Blanc, as Adrien and Sami Bouajila, as Mehdi, however, saved the film.
While the connection to Sarah is never clear, Blanc's thoughtful, lonely and love-starved Adrien is the only empathetic character in the film.
The moment that Adrien discovers that Mehdi is sleeping with Manu is simply the most heart-wrenching scene in a generally depressing film.
Bouajila won the César Award (think French Oscars) for Best Supporting Acting for his role as Mehdi, and rightfully so.
In perhaps the most complicated role of the film, Bouajila captures Mehdi's sexual confusion, frustration and fear.
One never finds out if this is Mehdi's first homosexual relationship or not, and that ambiguity only adds richness to his character.
Julien Hirsch's cinematography is simply superb, bringing an intensity and beauty to the film.
Capitalizing on the summer setting, Hirsch uses water as a motif in the film, perhaps to show the flow of life, an element that Techiné acknowledges in his third part of the film.
Manu inevitably dies two-thirds into the film. At first it seems unnecessary that the film continues after his death.
However, upon further contemplation, the purpose of the film, as indicated by the title The Witnesses, Techiné created this film as a testament to AIDS and the continuation of life afterwards.
The films has its problems; there is no doubt about that. Yet Techiné has made a film that leaves you thinking about it long after you have left the theater.
His foray into the lives of Parisians who experience their first interaction with AIDS makes the disease all the more personal and difficult. And yes, despite the fear and hardship, ultimately life must go on.
By intertwining the lives of individuals with the disease in Les Témoins rather than making a documentary, Techiné creates increased awareness, bringing AIDS closer to home.
