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Movies Forum Index » International Movies Forum » _Last Year in Marienbad_; _Witnesses_...
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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:43 pm |
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I saw _Last Year in Marienbad_ and _Witnesses_ back to back. Resnais'
film is of course a masterpiece, perhaps the best edited film ever
put together, although it surprises me in so many places still. The
print isn't perfect (there is only one going around the country), and
a DVD release is overdue. I was expecting an above average outing by
Techine too.
I like the torrid pace of _Witnesses_, established right from the
start
with fast editing, the staccato type-writer sound, the urgent opera
aria. It is the quickened pulse of falling in love which suffuses
the first half of the film. But it also heralds the bugle call of war,
directed against romantic rivals in the film's second half, as well as
against the new plague. I shouldn't have needed Techine's explicit
title cards to catch on that he is at his best balancing all-out
loves and wars. He is among the most sensual of modern filmmakers,
and the breath-taking physicality of the seaside in summer, the
headlong rush of plane rides and love making in open fields, are just
stunning on the big screen. The transition to winter -- its funeral
and
its desolation -- is proportionately more tragic. The characters in
the
film bear witness to the first days of the AIDS epidemic but the title
is appropriate in another way. Most are bystanders, islands, who do
not engage, or hold back too much. There is Sarah (Emmanuelle Beart),
a writer who scorns her new born child as she pretends to work; Medhi
her closet bisexual cop husband who cracks down on vice; Manu (Johan
Libereau) the half Algerian youth who loves him; and Adrien (Michel
Blanc) the crusading doctor forced to admired from afar. Some harden
themselves against horrific bodily decay, palpable fear of infection,
despair. The sick and soon-to-be-blind Manu locks himself indoors.
Sarah may as well be infected too, she kicks everyone out, sleeps in
all day. Adrien takes in Manu who has jilted him, fights the good
fight
against AIDS but keeps everyone else at bay. Tough guy Medhi just
takes off and leaves Sarah; his breakdown, after being repeatedly
denied
access to Manu, has such profound tenderness and truth, it is
shocking to behold. Manu's sister Julie (played wonderful character
actor Julie Depardieu) can't take care of anyone and tunes out. But
ironically (and like in _Les Voleurs_) one of the two redeeming grace
notes of tragedy comes from a Mozart aria. Sung by Julie, it is the
same
"Figaro" piece used in Claude Miller's _The Accompanist_, and it
releases
Manu into the world one last time. The other takes place at Adrien's
dinner party, after Julie has left for her rehearsal. Manu bequeath
his
diary and his kiss-of-life on the lips of Sarah. She bravely accepts
and is reborn, takes up writing again, becomes the ultimate witness
to his story and that of the emerging disease. Such a simple,
brilliant, condensed, cinematic passage ... All five central
characters in _Witnesses_ are well-round, but as in vintage Techine,
supporting roles need but appear in one scene and have their inner
lives illuminated by the master, like a flash of ligntning, the
miracle of Rembrandt's eyes. Sarah's mother's generosity and
indulgence. Manu's mother's bitterness at the funeral, the story
of her dead middle class Algerian husband. Which also explains
Julie's insecurity. (Yes Julie will marry an older, heterosexual
version of Adrien, a belated surrogate father. It fits so
magnificently.) When I heard the aria but especially when I saw
the kiss, I can longer deny that _Witnesses_ is one of Techine's
greatest masterpieces. I have to rank it above _Changing Times_,
the two Binoche vehicles I love so much, _Strayed_, perhaps even
_Wild Reed_; if I prefer _Les Voleurs_ it is because of Deneuve's
great romantic character in the midst of hardened warriors touches
such a chord in me. I saw _Witnesses_ with an audience of 4 in Santa
Fe. Tastes differ, but what is the excuse for this film, clearly one
of the decade's best, getting so little exposure and accolade?
Where are the critics supposed to be doing their job? |
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