Call me an optimist, but I'm always hoping for Oscar reform. I've been rather excited about recent rumblings that the Academy is finally, finally considering changing its rules regarding foreign film consideration. I saw one of the new nominees last week, The Counterfeiters, and I have to say that there were at least 20 or 30 other, better foreign language films last year. In fact, I'd have to say that The Counterfeiters is a contender for my worst list of 2008; it takes on an interesting story, but cinematically it's sheer amateur hour. The only reason it got nominated is because it takes place in a concentration camp. I also need to mention that the director, Stefan Ruzowitzky, made one of the worst films I have ever seen, All the Queen's Men (2002), starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard as soldiers who go undercover as drag queens in WWII.

Did anyone notice that though La vie en rose earned three nominations (Best Actress, Costume, Makeup) it didn't get nominated for Foreign Language Film? Likewise, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (205 screens) -- filmed almost entirely in French -- was nominated for four awards (Best Director, Editing, Screenplay, Cinematography), but not Best Foreign Film. Why? Diving Bell doesn't count as foreign because it has an American director. Not to mention that each country is only allowed to submit one film, and France's choice, Persepolis (100 screens) was not nominated either. Instead, it was nominated for Best Animated Film! This type of thing happens all the time. In 2002, the foreign film committee rejected the Brazilian film City of God. It was released in 2003 to great critical acclaim and success, and was nominated the following year for four Oscars in other categories. In 2000, Taiwan chose to submit the hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, rather than arguably the greatest film of the past decade, Edward Yang's Yi Yi. Why couldn't both be nominated?

It might help to know who Téchiné is before attempting to decipher The Witnesses. The picture goes in as many different directions as its maker's filmography. It begins as a Rohmer-like comedy of errors, albeit a stiff and half-baked one, starring five characters. Sarah (Emmanuelle Béart, gorgeous, even with a ridiculous haircut) is a writer and new mom who finds that she doesn't like motherhood; ironic, given that she has published several children's books. Her husband, Mehdi (Sami Bouajila) is a cop who likes flying planes in his off hours. Sarah's best friend is Adrien (the extraordinary Michel Blanc), a gay, middle-aged doctor who goes cruising in the parks for sex. He picks up Manu (Johan Libereau), and lets the young, carefree fellow stay with him, although Manu isn't interested in sex with his benefactor. Manu's sister is Julie (Julie Depardieu), a rising opera star who lives in a sleazy hotel mainly populated by hookers. It also looks as if there might have been a sixth character; Sarah's editor is mentioned more than just in passing, but he is only seen once. (For some reason, French movies, such as Va Savoir and Private Fears in Public Places, prefer the number six.)

The premise of this film -- an aging woman hires a gorgeous, up-scale hooker to begin an affair with her philandering husband in order to re-learn what turns him on -- is so slight that it's reminiscent of Woody Allen's experiment in Melinda & Melinda. Comedy, drama, or thriller could be grown from this seed, depending on the director's whim. But the pleasant surprise of Anne Fontaine's Nathalie. . . is its unwillingness to fully commit to any one genre. Instead, a potential plot twist is dangled before our eyes in the opening scenes and then brushed back under the rug, leaving us with a kernel of suspense to go with an otherwise straightforward story about a woman's wounded pride and her increasing fascination with the way a beautiful, sexy woman can set a fire in her husband's mind in a way she never could.

The beautiful woman in question is Marlene, played by French star Emmanuelle Beart, who recently starred in Danis Tanovic's Hell, a not-uninteresting updating of Euripides' Medea. Even though the crossover bridge has been presumably lowered for Beart several times over the years, it's in French cinema that she's remained most prominent. To American audiences, she is still most recognizable as Claire, the foxy turncoat with the heavy French accent in Brian DePalma's Mission: Impossible.