" Look outside the window There's a woman being grabbedThey've dragged her to the bushesAnd now she's being stabbedMaybe we should call the copsAnd try to stop the pain But Monopoly is so much funI'd hate to blow the game"PHIL OCHS - OUTSIDE OF A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS What the folksinger depicts in his song is exactly what happens in the movie;by and large ,it is another version of "the accused" (Jonathan Kaplan ,1988)in which Oscar-winner Jodie Foster was raped before indifferent (or vicious ) eyes ,but here the witnesses claim that they've heard or seen nothing;all of them were in their apartment ,they did not intervene or even call the Police .Given this harrowing subject,it is a pity that the movie is so dull and so mediocre ;the central character,the coward who wants to redeem himself is played by a Johnny -one-note Yvan Attal;his girlfriend is the most uninteresting character of the script,being in China when "it " happened" ,so why give such an important part to her?Only talented Nicole Garcia tries to save something from the wreckage ,sadly unsupported by the rest of the cast.Yves Boisset or André Cayatte were often unfairly despised by the "true connoisseurs" of the French cinema;those men are /were able to give that kind of story substance ;they are sorely missed here.

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.

I read the other comments for this film. I respect this point of view, but don't share it. That doesn't mean I am right and they are wrong. I consider this film as a brilliant, unusual, daring and powerful drama. One more masterpiece directed by Lucas Belvaux, who already gave us RAPT, in 2009, starring the same Yvan Attal at his peak. His best. The story of a murder committed at night, in a neighbourhood where every one heard or saw the killing BUT without calling the police. Because of their fear, their cowardice. Only one among them, one week later, dares admitting to his wife that he actually heard a long cry in the night. A cry of agony. He goes to the police and tells the truth. But afterwards, a journalist gets the information and each one of the 38 witnesses of the crime is aware of the courageous man's - Attal - behavior which points out their own cowardice...A tense, poignant gripping downbeat film that I won't forget.

I'm sorry, but this movie might be the worst I've ever seen. It's about a murder which happens in an Urban area, in Le Havre, but no one claims to have seen nor heard anything. Of course, they are lying. This could be quite an interesting subject, but in this movie it's not. It is never explained why the witnesses didn't do or say anything. In the meantime a lot of people are staring at each other, using big words without meaning and making a problem out of nothing. And we get shots of the port of Le Havre which doesn't seem to have any purpose either. Not to mention the acting is really not any good, in particular Sophie Quinton is terrible. It would be nice if they tried to find a psychological explanation for this, but they don't. Instead there are these typical cliché characters, the noisy reporter, the straight up policeman and the antihero. I really regret seeing this and would not recommend it to anyone.