Paris, 1984: Manu (Johan Libéreau), a young man fresh from the country, throws himself with some relish into the city’s gay pick-up scene, where he is befriended by an older doctor, Adrien (a typically engaging Michel Blanc). Manu has a knack for making friends, and it’s not long before he embarks on an affair with policeman Mehdi (Sami Bouajila), partner of Adrien’s friend Sarah (Emmanuelle Béart). Of course, the real drama comes when Manu is diagnosed with a mysterious new disease.
The outline may sound vaguely reminiscent of Téchiné’s 1991 outing, J’embrasse pas, but if anything, The Witnesses serves as a counterpoint to that flashy but rather shallow affair.
Téchiné has pitched his latest film against the grim reality of AIDS, which the director envisions as a war. And yet… Although it’s a cliché of many films based on fact that time gives a welcome perspective, here there is an unavoidable feeling of hindsight compared to, say, Cyril Collard’s incendiary 1992 dispatch from the frontline, Les Nuits Fauves, one of the very best films to tackle the subject of the disease.
Indeed, the director’s camera is curiously inconstant as it follows the repercussions among the quartet of friends, which includes Manu’s sister, Julie (Julie Depardieu). Intriguing too is how on different occasions characters are pictured in the same clothes (Sarah’s yellow summer dress, a red polo shirt of Mehdi’s), revisiting the same settings. That’s true to life, but it also suggests a circle of society caught in a repeating cycle – an interesting idea which, like the film itself, remains curiously undeveloped.
