Camden New Journal - Movies: The Witness

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 18 October 2007

Wish you were here: Emmanuelle Béart, Michel Blanc and Johan Libéreau in The Witness

A frankly French take on emotional turmoil

THE WITNESS - Directed by Andre Techine
Certificate 15

HAVE you ever noticed how the French talk so openly and unaffectedly about sex in their movies, somehow managing it without giving offence or, indeed, embarrassment?
No? Well, try this. Here we have a fresh-faced youth named Manu (Johan Libéreau), arriving in Paris in the 1980s to be taken under the wing of his older sister Julie (Julie Depardieu, daughter of the legendary Gerard) and living with her in a cheap hotel room which is all they can afford.
She spots him eyeing her bare body in the shower. Cue dialogue: “Why are you looking at me like that?”
And his honest reply: “I’ve never seen a naked woman before.”
No offence meant, none taken. It’s almost like everyday conversation. The pair go off to spend time in the family’s seaside villa, along with a balding gay doctor (played by the incomparable Michel Blanc) who has taken a shine to the boy – in a celibate way.
Again, all very casual. “We just want to be friends,” the young man assures his anxious sister.
But his latent feelings come to the fore when he meets Julie’s boyfriend, the local police chief (Sami Bouajila), and a complex family situation emerges from the emotional turmoil.
This perceptive drama, backed by rewarding performances all round, is a reflection on why foreign language films are all the rage right now, with an all-time record 26 of them taking more than a million pounds each at the British box office in recent months.
Of course it may have something to do with the cultural shift in the country’s population.
Whatever the reason, just keep ’em coming!

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