MamaGravity
good back-story, and good acting
Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Console
best movie i've ever seen.
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
roland-scialom
In this story, there is no many room for actors to show all their skills. So, on the point of the performance of the actors, the film is rather dull. What is thrilling in this story, is the fact that the community of the neighborhood stays united while everybody lies about having heard the yelling of the woman savagely assassinated and nobody took the initiative of calling the police. That is, it seems that the lie cement the relationships between the members of the community. When truth comes to light, and the members of the neighborhood have to confess to the police that they heard, indeed, the yelling of the victim, each member gets aware of his own cowardice and the cowardice of each of the other members. So, the relationships between the members are severely shaken. And because of this trauma, the community takes Pierre Morvan as a scapegoat and start to abhor him. Also his wife, who during the hole story affirms to support him in any circumstance, his wife quits. The moral of the story seems to be that a lie is stronger than the truth to cement the relationship of a group of people.
carcarri-811-349927
I agree 90% with Auberus' comments. However, Love , the one with a capital L, between Pierre and Louise is tested in an unexpected way. It's put in danger of showing to be unequal to the challenge: perhaps it can turn out to be love without a capital L. In sum: Goog plot, good script. Presents some dramatic, hard to face choices, some with ethical contents. Overall tempo of the film is restrained, shaded, as frequently seen in good European films. Very good acting by and large. Good photography. For those interested in architecture, the urban location is the dry and yet elegant group of apartment buildings designed by architect Perret, a reference in concrete buildings.
Bart
I think the story itself is very interesting and keeps people busy in these times but how this movie highlights the theme is a pity.The acting is not so well, at some points it looks like a cheap (American style) soap series with the same 'soapy' camera shots and thin conversations. It gets worse as the movie progresses and the director is trying to get emotions in the viewer but that didn't work that well. Some dialogs are just not natural in the emotional state the people intend to be. The part on the beach with the man (lead actor) reading the newspaper article of the journalist is really lightly and the movie itself feels like a rattled off story.There's not much wrong with the lighting and cinematic quality. There are some very pretty harbor/boat/city shots in the movie, especially in the beginning but later in the movie some (repeated) shots start to irritate and the director uses the same silence/hard-noisy sound trick too much. The camera angles were pretty standard in dialogs. The movie is more photographic than cinematic.If the story is not so strong and the acting is not so well, the soundtrack can save the 'general atmosphere' of the movie. Unfortunately, that part also failed because of the very simple and obvious guitar tunes.A story like this should hit the 'emotional snare' but I think the the director failed to attract the audience in his emotional story.There are much better (French) movies available so my advice is to skip this one.
auberus
"38 témoins" aka "38 witnesses" is an adaptation from David Decoin's 2009 Novel entitles "Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent" (Do women die like this?). The Novel as the film was inspired by a true crime story that occurred in 1964 in Queens New York where a local woman was stabbed, sexually assaulted and murdered in public as her neighbors ignored her cries for help.The film from director Lucas Belvaux focuses on one couple played by Ivan Attal (Pierre Morvand)and Sophie Quinton as his wife Louise who is coming back from a trip in China and understands that a young woman was murdered in the street she lives in. At the time of the crime her husband Pierre was working late and so wasn't home when the crime occurred…so he says… But the police and a journalist (the beautiful Nicole Garcia) are investigating. One of the witnesses is having a different version than the 37 others. One of the witnesses can't look anymore into his wife's eyes. One of the witnesses has caught a terrible disease: Guilt. A disease for which the only cure is confession; a confession so hard to do it can only be delivered in a sleep, during a dream or a nightmare. And this witness is Pierre (Ivan Attal).What if you were confronted to an event that would spoil the Tranquility of your Life, the Routine of it? What if this event would command you to do something that' you've never done before? What if doing nothing is indeed doing something, turning into a placid monster? After confronting this moment of disgusting Truth about yourself, you may survive the confrontation, but the loss of Love might be the price to pay. You'll witness the Love fading in the eyes of your wife, of your kids of your friends but also in your own eyes…Superbly filmed and through a well-crafted narration "38 witnesses" emerges as a powerful movie about the darkest hour of our Soul. The movie works as a step by step psychological confrontation between the worst of you that can rise from cowardice, apathy and the search for redemption that follows. The price to pay is proportionate to the damage you've provoke. Be ready to empty your Life from the only thing you cannot live without: Love.