The Witnesses (Les témoins) (2007)

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I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by André Téchiné, I thought I might as well check it out. Basically, back in the 80's and the 90's, André Téchiné was one of the most highly regarded movie directors in France. Actually, he may still be highly regarded nowadays in France but since I haven't been living there for almost a decade, I'm not really up... read more

Description: After two lesser but still ravishing efforts, André Téchiné went back in top form with Strayed (Les égarés) (2003), a fine adaptation of the novel, Le Garçon aux yeux gris, by Gilles Perrault. While Téchiné usually braids several intersecting stories, this engaging wartime drama, traces a single linear tale with only four characters. In 1940, an attractive widow flees Nazi-occupied Paris for the South with her small daughter and teen-age son; a mysterious young man joins them. The foursome find refuge from the war in an abandoned house. As in his previous films, Téchiné quietly navigates the action toward wrenching mom After two lesser but still ravishing efforts, André Téchiné went back in top form with Strayed (Les égarés) (2003), a fine adaptation of the novel, Le Garçon aux yeux gris, by Gilles Perrault. While Téchiné usually braids several intersecting stories, this engaging wartime drama, traces a single linear tale with only four characters. In 1940, an attractive widow flees Nazi-occupied Paris for the South with her small daughter and teen-age son; a mysterious young man joins them. The foursome find refuge from the war in an abandoned house. As in his previous films, Téchiné quietly navigates the action toward wrenching moments that drive right into the heart.

Set in a rarefied zone of remembrance, Téchiné films record the subtlest nuances of image and character in a tight, restrained style that uncorks big emotional payoffs. This is once of Téchiné's "provincial" films with sumptuous scenes of sunstruck fields and water in the Southern French countryside, where the director was born, the beautiful photography contrast with the horror of the period in which the story is set in this mystical, sensual film about a lost paradise. ... (more) (less)