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Witnesses, The
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Laurent Guyot
André Téchiné
Viviane Zingg
Directed by: André Téchiné
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 1, 2008
Running Time: 112 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): French
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Johan Libéreau, Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Béart, and Sami Bouajila
Paris, summer 1984. Manu arrives in Paris, where he shares a cheap hotel room with his sister Julie. He strikes up a joyous, chaste friendship with Adrien, a wealthy doctor in his early fifties who opens Manu’s eyes to a different way of life. On a trip out on a speedboat, Adrien introduces Manu to Sarah and Mehdi, a young couple who have just had their first child. An unplanned love affair and the onset of the AIDS epidemic - seen by the media and in the collective imagination as a shameful, modern-day plague - upset the ordered tranquility of their individual destinies. Each of them becomes a protagonist in - and witness to - a contemporary tragedy, where those who don’t die may emerge stronger, but not undamaged. (Strand Releasing)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Alice & Martin Changing Times Strayed
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Ken Fox
Techine's unwillingness to soften his characters reflects a rare honesty about human nature that's rarely seen in movies, particularly movies about fatal illnesses, and his film is an engaging and particularly French character study.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
This is the epidemic from love's point of view, a story as much about how the disease can ravage the heart as it does the body. It is also Téchiné's best film since 1998's superb "Alice et Martin," and 1994's even better "Wild Reeds."
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The Witnesses may be schematic, but it lets each character live and breathe. The film captures a time and place that seems very distant now.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
What the characters in The Witnesses -- and we, the audience -- pay testimony to in André Téchiné's urgent, compassionate, and ultimately optimistic French drama are the toll the epidemic has rung, and the responsibility of the living to choose life.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nathan Lee
The Witnesses forms a magnificent trilogy with "Son Frère" (2003), Patrice Chéreau's devastating account of fraternal devotion in the face of death, and the amazing, acerbic "Before I Forget," a brooding and bitter tale of survival coming soon from Jacques Nolot, here lending an iconic cameo as the proprietor of Manu's hooker hotel.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The Witnesses may frustrate those who prefer movies that tell clear-cut stories in which hard lessons are learned. But in the director’s farsighted vision of life, the ground under our feet is always shifting. As time pulls us forward, the shocks of the past are absorbed and the pain recedes. In its light-handed way, The Witnesses is profound.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
They should hand out a score card with every ticket to The Witnesses to help viewers keep track of who's sleeping with whom.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Witnesses doesn't pay off with a great operatic pinnacle, but it's better that way. Better to show people we care about facing facts they care desperately about, without the consolation of plot mechanics.
Read Full Review >Variety Deborah Young
Despite its grim subject, the powerful storytelling projects the strongly affirmative message that it's a miracle to be alive and bear witness to those who did not survive. This memorable film, one of Techine's best, is in no way limited to gay viewers.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
A timely reminder of AIDS; we've largely forgotten we're in the midst of a crisis. But the movie isn't all cautionary, or at all preachy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Steve Erickson
This transcends the usual stodginess of period pieces with crucial historical testimony, delivered with verve.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Téchiné is unusually adroit at manipulating a complex set of relations within a very mixed group of people. This movie is easy to take--chatty and sociable, with a brightly lit, even sunshiny gloss and an open sensuality.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The tone of The Witnesses is one of randomness. This makes for an ambling narrative, but an atmospheric one that feels authentic despite its unlikely character pairings.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
