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"The Witnesses () is a 2007 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Michel Blanc, Sami Bouajila, Emmanuelle Béart and Johan Libéreau. The film, set in Paris in 1984, explores the lives of a closely knit group of friends who are impacted with the sudden outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. The Witnesses was critically acclaimed. Plot It is the summer of 1984 in Paris. Sarah, a well-to-do writer of children's books, and her working-class husband, Mehdi, an inspector of North African descent, are confronting some marital problems after the recent arrival of their first child. Sarah, stumbling over a bout of writer's block, has little maternal instinct towards their newborn baby, whose cries she tunes out with earplugs while she works. Her husband despairs when she neglects the child, does what he can to fill in, and sometimes parks the child with his parents. The couple have an open marriage and both are allowed to take outside lovers in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement that seems to work, although not without tensions. Meanwhile, Sarah's close friend Adrien, a middle-aged gay doctor, meets Manu, a carefree young man, at a cruising ground. Manu is not sexually attracted to Adrien and they do not have sex, but strike an emotional friendship. Manu is happy with the friendship and becomes Adrien's companion and his student of life's finer things. Wildly in love with his shallow, narcissistic protégé, Adrien is shrewd enough not to push too hard, but there is an element of masochism in his abject devotion. Manu, who has recently arrived to Paris from a provincial town in the south of France, shares a space with his sister Julie, while she struggles to affirm herself as an opera singer. They live in a cheap hotel that is a center of prostitution. This does not bother Manu, and he has a friendly relationship with Sandra, a prostitute. The hotel is under scrutiny by Mehdi, who leads the police force's vice division. Through Adrien, Manu meets Sarah and Mehdi. The group of friends get together at Sarah's mother’ summerhouse in the Calanques of Marseille. One afternoon, when Mehdi and Manu go swimming in a remote cove, Mehdi saves Manu from drowning and, while tugging him to shore and administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, becomes aroused. Later, when Manu makes a pass at Mehdi, he responds, and they embark on a secret, no-strings-attached love affair. They meet at the holiday camping site outside Paris, where Manu now works as a cook. When Manu confesses to Adrien that he has been having sex with Mehdi, Adrian is furious and hits Manu. After the fight, Adrian discovers spots on Manu's skin; it turns out that he has AIDS. Sarah tries to write a novel, and as a result Mehdi leaves temporarily to stay at his parents with the baby. Adrien becomes a leader in a medical crusade against AIDS, while meanwhile privately taking on Manu's treatment. Mehdi also does not shun his friend when he hears the news, although he is terrified that he has AIDS and cannot bring himself to tell his wife. He wants to see Manu, but Manu does not want to see him in the terrible state he is in. By contrast, Adrien is safe as his relationship with Manu was more companion-based than sexual. Desperate to see his former lover, Mehdi forces his way into the camping site. Manu shows him his gun, with which he will commit suicide when his illness gets worse. Mehdi secretly takes it with him and throws it in the Seine. Mehdi is relieved that he has not been infected. Sarah has not been infected either and they reconcile. Manu's health deteriorates and he commits suicide with pills supplied by Adrien for this purpose. Julie and Adrien take Manu's body to be buries in his native village to his grieving mother. Before he passes away, Manu uses a tape recorder to dictate his life for others to hear of. Sarah is inspired by the events as they have transpired so far and, once he is gone, listens to the tapes and begins writing a tale (for grown-ups) of it. She is free of her writer's block. Medhi is a bit concerned his life will become gossip, but Sarah assures him she has changed the names in the story. Julie decides to move to Munich, Mehdi and Adrien make amends while Sandra is HIV positive. The following summer, Sarah, Mehdi, Adrien and his new companion Steve, a young American, return to the summerhouse on the Riviera to celebrate Sarah and Medhi's child's birthday. Cast Michel Blanc, André Téchiné, Sami Bouajila, Julie Depardieu, Johan Libereau, Emmanuelle Béart, Lorenzo Balducci (left to right), arrival for the premiere of "Les Témoins" ("The Witnesses", Die Zeugen"), Berlinale palace, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. *Johan Libéreau as Manu *Michel Blanc as Adrien *Sami Bouajila as Mehdi *Emmanuelle Béart as Sarah *Julie Depardieu as Julie *Constance Dollé as Sandra *Lorenzo Balducci as Steve *Xavier Beauvois as the editor *Jacques Nolot as the hotel's owner *Maïa Simon as Sarah's mother *Raphaeline Goupilleau as Manu and Julie's mother *Michèle Moretti Analysis Interviewed about The Witnesses André Téchiné commented: "I think it’s important to consider the issues in the film beyond the framework of heterosexuals vs homosexuals. I don’t know if Mehdi’s affair with Manu is his first or last gay experience; I don’t know if he’s been with other guys or might so in the future. I show my characters at a certain moment in their lives, which reveals certain aspects of them, but it is the tip of the iceberg. The rest, even if we get glimpses of it in the film, is left to the imagination of each person in the audience.Sight & Sound, November 2007. Interview with Téchiné about The Witnesses, p.47 Commenting about the characters on The Witnesses, Téchiné said: "I prefer people to be moved by Manu when he runs, climbs a tree or burst out laughing than when he is sick. For me, that would be akin to taking the audience hostage and I reject that. But I don’t reject emotion itself rather I shift it around instead of placing it where it becomes predictable. I hope audiences find Manu moving in the upbeat scenes in the first half of the film: It is good time shared, not compassion in bad times, that makes good friends. As Sarah’s mother says in the film it’s a miracle being alive. And it is this sense of miracle that I wanted to conclude and open the film, broadening the horizon by revisiting spaces that Manu has inhabited and rediscovering them without him, with another character traveling through. Perhaps loving Manu and bearing witnesses to his life makes the other protagonist stronger". Music The original score for the film was written by Alain Sarde, regular composer in Téchiné's films.Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 157 The sound track includes an eclectic mix of artist and styles like: * Marcia Baila Les Rita Mitsouko * I'm a lover Andrea * Don't Forget the Nite Les Rita Mitsouko * Qual Favellar ? from Lorlando finto pazzo Act 3 Antonio Vivaldi * Barbarina's Aria from Le nozze di Figaro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart * Restez avec Moi Les Rita Mitsouko * Docteur Miracle Johan Libéreau Reception The film was acclaimed by critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 48 reviews. The critical consensus is: "André Techiné successfully weaves five gripping stories in an engaging and realistic film about the early days of the AIDS epidemic." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 75 based on 15 reviews. Jan Stuart of Newsday wrote: "André Techiné's The Witnesses is one of the finest fiction-film accounts of a free yet frightful moment in time, when the relaxing sexual liberties of the previous decade were being squeezed by the onset of an unforgiving new virus." In Variety Deborah Young commented: "What the characters in The Witnesses and 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". Nathan Lee in The Village Voice wrote: "Téchiné's triumph of compassion and craft shames the American cinema's indifference to gay history." Film critic Roger Ebert commented: "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". Ken Fox in TV Guide wrote: " Techine’s unwillingness to soften his characters reflects a rare honesty particularly movies about fatal illness, and his film is an engaging and particularly French character study about human nature that’s rarely seen in the movies". New York Press critic Armond White, who has been Téchiné's most fervent U.S. supporter, hailed The Witnesses: "No filmmaker has a greater appreciation of human diversity than Téchiné, whose socially complex melodramas always feature age, gender and race through liberté, égalité, fraternité. That's Téchiné's radical vision of France postmodern, post-Colonial and post-gay liberation with all those issues in motion." In The New York Times, Stephen Holden warned viewers that: "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." David Denby in his review for The New Yorker wrote: "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". DVD release The film was released on DVD in the United States on 24 June 2008. Accolades *Berlin Film Festival (Germany) Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear (André Téchiné) *César Awards (France) Won: Best Actor - Supporting Role (Sami Bouajila) Nominated: Best Actor - Leading Role (Michel Blanc) Nominated: Best Director (André Téchiné) Nominated: Most Promising Actor (Johan Libéreau) Notes External links * Category:2007 drama films Category:2007 films Category:HIV/AIDS in film Category:French drama films Category:French films Category:French LGBT-related films Category:Films directed by André Téchiné Category:Films scored by Philippe Sarde Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor César Award-winning performance Category:Films set in 1984 "
"Say Hello to Soft Cell is a budget-priced compilation album by Soft Cell. The album was released in 1996 by Spectrum and collects singles (minus Tainted Love, their most popular hit), album tracks and b-sides. It is also notable for the inclusion of A Man Can Get Lost (incorrectly titled as A Man Could Get Lost in the artwork), formerly previously available only on 7" vinyl single and (at the time) unavailable on CD, until subsequent releases corrected this. The four page booklet contains a brief biography by Marc Almond. The album was reissued in 1999 with different artwork that omitted the 'featuring Marc Almond' epithet but repeated the mistakes made regarding the track listing (see Notes). Track listing #"Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - 5:23 (*) #"Torch" - 4:09 #"Bedsitter" - 3:38 #"You Only Live Twice" (John Barry / Leslie Bricusse) - 4:35 #"Heat" - 6:14 #"The Art of Falling Apart" - 5:03 #"Facility Girls" - 2:24 #"Born to Lose" (Johnny Thunders) - 2:57 #"Sex Dwarf" - 5:22 #"Disease and Desire" - 4:06 #"Chips on My Shoulder" - 4:09 #"Frustration" - 4:13 #"Mr. Self Destruct" - 3:15 #"Numbers" - 4:58 #"Where Was Your Heart (When You Needed It Most)" - 5:11 #"A Man Could Get Lost" - 3:18 () Notes All songs written by Marc Almond and Dave Ball unless otherwise noted. *(*) "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" is actually the Julian Mendelsohn remix Say Hello, Wave Goodbye '91. *() As previously mentioned, "A Man Could Get Lost" is actually the early vocal version of this track entitled A Man Can Get Lost. References Category:Soft Cell albums Category:1996 compilation albums "
"Tears in the Rain is a 1988 television film directed by Don Sharp and starring Sharon Stone and Christopher Cazenove. It was one of a series of films produced in the Harlequin Romance Movie Series (USA). It was one of a series of romance adaptations for television directed by Don Sharp. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Pamela Wallace and published in the Silhouette Special Edition line of romance novels in 1985 by Simon & Schuster before the Silhouette brand was acquired by Harlequin. There are alterations to the plot line made by the screenwriter but the essential story has stayed the same. The action and events take place in two time periods in England, the 1940s and the 1980s. The World War Two story is told in flashbacks. Plot Jessie Cantrell's dying wish is that her daughter Casey (Sharon Stone) personally take a letter to Lord Richard Bredon who lives in the UK. Viewing the matter as a sacred trust Casey sets off for England from her horse farm in Kentucky. A failed attempt to find him at his country residence has her falling from a wall into the arms of Lord Bredon's playboy son, Michael (Christopher Cazenove). Casey manages to escape his grilling without giving her name, but the younger Bredon tracks her to an inn in the local village where he uses his clout to get it. Casey accepts his dinner invitation in order to learn the whereabouts of his father. The evening is spent with Michael attempting to seduce her and trying to get information out of her. It ends with neither one being any more informed than when it started. Wanting to see her again and to continue to try and solve her mystery Michael uses the lure of his stable to get her to visit Bredon Hall the next day. While she is there, Michael's flamboyant best friend Hamdan al Dubai (Leigh Lawson) arrives with his manservant Fordingbridge to discuss a filly with the horse manager. Much to Michael's annoyance Hamdan immediately homes in on Casey and begins enacting what is most likely an age old game between them of trying to steal the other's most recent conquest. After Casey learns that Michael's father is in London she accepts an offer made by Hamdan to go back there with him. This arouses Michael's suspicions a fresh and on a horseback ride while they wait for Hamdan to conclude his business he makes another unsuccessful effort for details Arriving back in London, Casey is able to find Lord Bredon at his office in Half Moon Square. While visibly shaken by the news of Jessie's death, he denies ever having known her and refuses to accept the letter. Instead of deterring her, Richard's confusing reaction only serves to make her more determined to uncover the mystery. Back at the hotel she finds that Michael has sent her flowers and during a phone call to thank him he asks her out for the afternoon of the following day. The scene then switches to Richard's office at Bredon Enterprises where he is clearly caught up in memories of the past brought on by his earlier meeting with Casey. The next day Hamdan calls to charm Casey into having lunch with him on his yacht. Michael, upon finding out her plans with Hamden, shows up at lunch uninvited but not unexpected by Fordingbridge who appears to be used to games that Michael and Hamdan play. The talk switches to a discussion of the party going on at Hamdan's house that evening. Hamdan invites her to the event but it's not until she finds out Lord Bredon is going to be there that she accepts. Later that evening as Casey is preparing to go she and Michael quibble over the cost of the dress he has bought her for the party. When she capitulates to him he looks over and happens to see that she's wearing a necklace that reminds him of his family crest. When she claims that it belonged to her mother he persists in trying to talk about it but she laughing blows off the conversation. At the party Casey and Michael are having a great time but that is soon stopped by a confrontation with his father who accuses her of being a con artist and tells his son about her trip to his office. Michael, who has a deep fear of being taken in by a woman, immediately lays into her. Casey becomes distraught by both men attacking her and runs off. Michael chases after her ultimately cornering her in a garden house where they end up in a passionate embrace. He agrees to hear her side of the story and the pair leave the party. Richard observes them leaving and a firework going off nearby takes him into a flashback. The scene changes to WWII where a young Richard and a woman who is clearly Jessie Cantrell flee to a bomb shelter during a German air strike. In the shelter Richard admits his love for Jessie despite having known her for only a short time. Coming out of the flashback Richard asks Hamdan to dig up information on Casey. Hamdan expresses his discomfort with the situation but this falls on deaf ears. Michael and Casey arrive at his apartment after her having told him the story about the letter on the way there. The two reexamine the pendant with him verifying that is the family crest. She postulates the theory that her mother and his father knew each other during the war. The scene fades to Richard driving home from the party and having a flashback about when he first met Jessie. It is revealed in the course of the flashback that Jessie was living with a friend of Richard's named Emily and that she was married to someone named Frank and that Frank appears to have died. The scene switches again back to the present day where Casey and Michael are talking about how Jessie might have met Richard. This leads to Michael seducing a somewhat reluctant Casey and carrying her off to bed. Later Richard arrives back at Half Moon Square, and it's revealed that the place was where Richard and Jessie used to meet. The next morning Hamdan sees Michael and Casey in a clinch on Michael's balcony. He's next seen talking with Richard on the phone. Richard asks him to work on Casey while he talks to Michael who is planning to come into the office. Once again Hamden expresses reluctance to involve himself in the situation but Richard hangs up on him. Hamdan then goes to see Casey at her hotel and ends up going with her to track down a woman whose name is in her mother's address book. While riding down the river Hamdan makes his position clear about his friendship with the Bredons, especially Michael, and that he wouldn't allow anyone to harm them. Casey swears that she would never do that. Back the office Richard confronts Michael about not getting rid of Casey and then Michael turns the confrontation on him asking how Casey's mother got the pendant. Richard kicks him out and goes into a flashback where it's revealed that Richard did in fact gave the pendant to Jessie. At a pub on the river Fordingbridge, who does a bit of sleuthing while getting drinks, reveals that the older lady he and Hamdan see Casey talking to is an old friend of her mother's named Billie Cooper. The scene shifts to Casey talking with Billie who confirms that Jessie was in England during the war. Billie further reveals that she came over as a member of the USO to follow Frank, Casey's father. Billie tells her about a fateful mission in which Frank was believed to have died trying to save Billie's husband. Billie continues the story where she confirms that Richard and Jessie knew one another and that their interest in each other was much to the disappointment of Richard's old friend, Jessie's flatmate Emily. A flashback reveals that Jessie got a telegram saying that Frank was still alive complicating her situation with Richard. As the two are talking Hamdan finally calls a PI to investigate Casey. Later at Michael's apartment Casey brings him up to speed on the situation. Michael has difficulty taking in this new information about his father and Casey expresses discomfort about what she sees as a shifting perspective of her parents. Michael and Casey end up revealing their feelings for one another and Michael asks Casey to marry him. At first she questions whether he really means it given their short acquaintance, and he explains that he feels that he has at last found what he believes to be true love. She accepts his proposal. Later at Bredon Hall, Michael tries to get Richard to read Jessie's letter. Richard continues to refuse. Michael confronts him with the knowledge that he knows about his relationship with Jessie. Richard, feeling that he can no longer deny it to Michael, confesses to having been in love with her. He also believes that Jessie screwed him over. Michael tells him that he is in love with Casey and plans to marry her. Richard continues to assert that he believes Casey to be a con artist and Michael walks out on him. A flashback reveals that Richard did intend to ask Jessie to marry him but when she didn't show up for their scheduled meeting he found out from Emily that Jessie had disappeared. Later Richard goes to meet with Hamdan at Bredon Enterprises to find out the results of the investigation on Casey. He not only learns that Casey's record is clear but that Frank was discovered not to have died around the time that Jessie vanished. This changes his whole perspective on what happened and he contacts Michael to apologize. Michael leaves Casey alone at his apartment to go to see his father. While she is alone there Casey receives a visit from Michael's mother. She turns out to be the Emily whose flat Jessie shared while she was in England. Emily tells the rest of the story which involves her meeting up with Jessie sometime after she had left London. Jessie was caring for Frank who was now being treated for blindness that he got from the explosion and wasn't aware that Jessie was pregnant with Richard's baby. Emily revealed to Jessie that she had married Richard and agreed to take and raise the baby as her own. The baby turns out to be Michael of course and the revelation prohibits marriage between him and Casey. Casey flees the flat and runs to Hamdan. After crying her heart out in the cabin on his yacht she tells Hamdan that she is leaving and asks him to take her to the airport. Fordingbridge, alarmed by the situation, calls Michael to tell him what was going on, and Michael races to the pier to try and talk to Casey. At first she is reluctant to do so but Hamdan convinces her that she must and she reveals to Michael the story Emily told her. At Bredon Enterprises Richard confronts Emily about what happened believing that somehow she interfered. A flashback reveals that in her determination to be the mistress of Bredon Hall and Richard's wife she manipulated events so that Richard was led to believe that Jessie had abandoned him. She then screws the knife in further by revealing to him the truth about Michael. Fordingbridge and Hamden arrive at the hotel to take Casey to the airport. Fordingbridge, who has developed a fondness Casey, has provided Hamden another file on her and his attitude reveals that he believes Hamden's probing has something to do with why Casey is leaving. On the drive, Casey reveals the whole story to Hamdan. As she dozes off in the seat next to him a flummoxed Hamdan remembers the file Fordingbridge gave him and looks through it. Whatever is in the file causes Hamdan mood to change for the positive and the then leans over and whispers something to Fordingbridge. Fordingbridge changes the car's direction. Back at Bredon Hall Richard and Michael have gotten together to share the reading of the letter. Hamdan's car pulls up outside and Casey awakens from her nap to find that she's there. She is distressed by this but Hamdan convinces her to come in with him. Once in the room with Michael and his father Hamdan hands Richard the file. Richard reads through it and then goes to sit next to Casey. He apologizes to her for how he behaved then reveals that according to the file Casey is actually not Jessie's and Frank's biological child and that she was adopted thus clearing the way for Casey and Michael's relationship to move forward. As Michael rushes to her side Richard lets her know that as Jessie sent her there to them they are now her family. The film closes with Richard rereading Jessie's letter then watching Michael and Casey from the window as they embrace. References External links * Category:1988 television films Category:1988 films Category:1988 drama films Category:British drama films Category:British films Category:British television films Category:English- language films Category:Films based on American novels Category:Films directed by Don Sharp Category:Films set in London "