The Witness (1978) User Reviews (4)

Chabrolesque.

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 27 August 2003]

When Jean -Pierre Mocky tries,his works resemble Claude Chabrol's.Such is the case of 'the témoin" which is his best film since "l'albatros" (1971).Here there is a true screenplay,no could-not-care-less directing and the results are satisfying.It takes some time to get off,but after about thirty minutes,the movie hits its stride,and it will remain interesting till the very end.

Noiret killed a Lolita who used to pose(an angel!) for Sordi,a painter in charge of restoring a church.Sordi knows that.Then a good psychological suspense begins ,enhanced by an angelic choir in the church.

There are good lines too:

Superintendent:"this crime can have been committed by anybody!"

Noiret:"Only a sex maniac could do such a thing!"

Superintendent:"That's what I said:anybody could!"

"He feels their wounds as if they were his own."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 14 June 2016]

Listening to Tim Lucas excellent commentary for Eyes Without A Face, I found out about a film maker called Jean-Pierre Mocky.Checking my DVD piles I spotted,what sounded like a very good Jean-Pierre Mocky title.

The plot:

Invited to renovate works of art, Antonio Berti leaves Italy for France.Arriving in France,Berti meets businessman Robert Maurisson,who along with wanting Berti to clean up the paintings,also controls large parts of the city with his business dealings.Deciding that "remaking" the paintings is the best option,the guys get a young girl called Cathy Massys to model for them. Showing herself to be sexually active well beyond her years,Massys starts having sex with Maurisson. Attempting to keep Maurisson's events quiet,Berti runs into trouble,when Massys is found dead.

View on the film:

Set against a "classical" Film Noir backdrop,the screenplay by co- writer/(along with Sergio Amidei/Augusto Caminito/Jacques Dreux/Harrisson Jude/Rodolfo Sonego & Alberto Sordi) director Jean- Pierre Mocky performs an acid attack on Film Noir,as the deliciously vulgar dialogue rubs up Berti and Maurisson dirty crimes.Taking a risqué bite with Lolita style tarts with hearts,the writers brilliant blend murky sexuality with brittle Film Noir,thanks to Maurisson interest in Massys pulling everyone into a deadly tar pit.

Openly showing the girls topless, Mocky & cinematographer Sergio D'Offizi give the movie an unexpected cheeky comedic charm via stylish swinging shots keeping to the beat of Piero Piccioni's peculiar score. Firing the acid on the screen in B & W, Mocky casts an excellent, elegantly dirty Film Noir atmosphere over the screen,which shines in scattered side shots which peak at the unease gripping the guys.

Entering as an outsider, Alberto Sordi gives a great performance as Antonio Berti,whose playfulness Berti drowns out with an awareness of being a Film Noir loner looking up at the axe.Trying to keep his misdeeds in the shadows, Philippe Noiret gives an excellent performance as Maurisson,thanks to Noiret covering Maurisson in a slippery,deadly charm,in a Mocky film which should not be mocked.

A vitriolic portrait of mediocrity

[norbert-plan-618-715813 · 9/10 · 23 October 2022]

In this film we find many of Jean-Mocky's recurring themes, present in many of his films, either as main subjects or underlying the plot. Among them: the provincial bourgeoisie, contemptuous and haughty, the mediocre narcissism of the Church, the sexual greed of all. In the context of a detective film. A pre-teen girl is found killed and raped. She was the model of Alberto Sordi, a painter who is restoring a painting in the local church. He is unwillingly accused, as he was the last one to see her. The film is also a plea against the death penalty. He is the witness of the title and will find himself accused of rape and murder. Philippe Noiret plays a contemptuous bourgeois, and his wife and the provincial bourgeoisie even more so.

A vitriolic portrait of mediocrity and caste racism, Jean-Pierre Mocky hits hard (the original material is a novel by Norman Daniels) with this film that slaps the viewer in the face. And he benefits from an important cast, with Philippe Noiret who excels as a concupiscent monster who can't help it, Alberto Sordi as a very stupid naïf, and Roland Dubillard in the role of the commissioner who gloats about annoying this bourgeoisie who believes itself untouchable.

Mocky forever

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 5 September 2022]

This movie supposes no mistake for anyone watching it; it is purely Jean Pierre Mocky's trademark, among his best and the strength of this film is that it is a false comedy, but a real tragedy, gloomy story if you analyze it after watching. Yes, as another viewer said, it looks like a Claude Chabrol's topic, the vitriolic painting of the provincial bourgeoisie. Also a tribute to Italian movie industry of the sixties and seventies, thanks to Alberto Sordi. It was daring for its time, evoking sexual assaults against kids and hypocrisy of important people. Noiret is excellent in this nasty character.