The Witnesses

It's 1984 and Paris is on the cusp of war- a biological war waged against a new, unknown virus that is spreading beyond control. Manu, a young homosexual from the provinces launches his pulsating sexuality onto the waiting city, joining his sister, an aspiring opera singer, at a seedy hotel populated with pimps and prostitutes. Adrien, a distinguished, balding doctor is stung by Manu’s overwhelming allure, and his cynical exterior soon begins to deconstruct as he becomes more and more emotionally entangled with the young boy. Meanwhile, Adrien’s friend Sarah, a writer and new mother, is reaching crisis point by shunning all maternal responsibility in favour of frivolity and self-aggrandisement.

While Emmanuelle Béart’s (Sarah) performance adequately depicts the desired freedoms of the new woman, André Téchiné’s direction falls gloomily short of drawing out the more interesting, emotional complexities of what could be a fascinating character. The focus of the film shifts subtly between nuanced layers of human aspects of desire, jealously and love when Manu falls for Sarah’s husband Medhi, but when the AIDS virus begins to encircle the drowning city, relationships fracture and the mood begins to intensify. Although Téchiné deftly juxtaposes beautiful backdrops against the dark socio-political reality of the fatal disease, the impact of this antagonism loses its way somewhat as the pace of the film becomes jilted and abrupt towards the final scenes. What could be a poignant and lyrical masterpiece ends up a solid, but banal portrayal of a microcosm of society caught in the maelstrom of fear, love and betrayal.