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ROLLER COASTER

Today's film was André Techiné's NYTimes Critics Pick

Les témoins / The Witnesses (2008)

I don't know how I missed this one. I thought I had seen all his films and this is one of the most powerful.

I am still very emotional. Ups and downs.

Intense.

It covers a period of time with six people, well, five, before during and after the AIDS plague.

It is filled with fun and happiness and despair and sadness but it is not melodrama or, even though one person is an opera singer, grand opera. But it has its operatic references and it is grand.

I feel a bit wiped.

Organized in three chapters, these people live vividly and with passion. There are gays, straights and none of the above. Or all.

It is not about sex so much as love.

A brother and sister, a husband and wife. A baby. A committed physician who becomes the French leader in the AIDS fight.

The music is great. The production carefully beautiful. The world is a little cruel but very forgiving.

This is a definite 5 and I will be seeing it again.

Labels: films