Time Regained (1999)

Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed. Looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood, his youth, his lovers, and the way the Great War put an end to a stratum of society. His memories are in no particular order, they move back and forth in time. Marcel at various ages interacts with Odette, with the beautiful Gilberte and her doomed husband, with the pleasure-seeking Baron de Charlus, with Marcel's lover Albertine, and with others; present also in memory are Marcel's beloved mother and grandmother. It seems as if to live is to remember and to capture memories is to create a work of great art. The memories parallel the final volume of Proust's novel. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Scene Access, Interactive Menu, Filmographies, Biographies, Product Description

Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time.

Prolific Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz's 1999 film Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé) will appeal to anyone with a love for Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Set on the eve of the First World War, the film tells the story of Marcel Proust (1871-1922) who revisites his past experiences while lying on his deathbed. Proust was a French a, best known for his six-volume In Search of Lost Time. He spent the last years of his life confined to his cork-lined bedroom, sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Ruiz deserves credit for taken on the seemingly impossible challenge of bring Proust to life in film. His floating camera techniques camera remind me of the films of Max Ophuls. With a running time of 162 minutes, many viewers will simply not have the patience nor the endurance to experience this flight of fancy in its entirety. But there is a big payoff for those who do. It will bring you to the edges of your senses. At times reminscent of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ruiz's surrealistic film chronicles the flashbacks and fantasies of Marcel Proust (Marcello Mazzarella) struggling to stay conscious and complete his novel. Photographs elicit memories of his youth and his lovers. His fictional characters (played by an ensemble cast including Catherine Deneuve as Odette de Crécy, Emmanuelle Béart as the beautiful Gilberte, John Malkovich as the pleasure-addict Baron de Charlus, Pascal Greggory as Saint-Loup, and Chiara Mastroianni as Proust's lover Albertine) wander through his stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, this film is ultimately an insightful lesson in how to live one's life. A beautiful film recommended with reservations.

G. Merritt October 28, 2008

Time Regained

I admit I have never read Remembrances of Time Past so a lot went over my head. This film version of the trilogy is interesting but very confusing for a novice like me. There are vignettes of different characters everywhere while Proust dies. Many are interesting and I was glad I watched the film, now I think I need to read the books! July 9, 2008

AN ATTACK !

It seems Jargo that you are hypocritical. You say that films are supposed to move you. You are absolutely right, as this film has moved you; it has moved you to vent your anger and disgust against "snobs". Perhaps you hate your social betters because you wish to be part of them, but you will never be. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ! July 10, 2006

read Proust first!

This is a wonderful film, a tribute by the Chilean-born direct Raoul Ruiz, in French with subtitles that occasionally are hard to read against the gold-white light of Marcel's retrospections. The most astonishing performance is John Malkovich's as Charlus, despite the fact that he doesn't resemble him in the slightest (Proust described the baron as so fat that he waddled, and his head as enormous).

The film is based on the novel's final book, which we now know as Finding Time Again, and begins with Marcel on his deathbed, dictating in a ghostly voice the novel that will be his triumph over death. The dying writer never reappears; what we get instead are scenes from the story of his life, including Little Marcel with his magic lantern at Combray, Young Marcel meeting Charlus at Balbec, and Middle-Aged Marcel attending the final society concert chez Prince de Guermantes, It's very difficult to follow, and should by no means be regarded as hors d'oeuvres to the feast of In Search of Lost Time, but rather as a digestif to follow it. -- Dan Ford at readingproust dot com July 8, 2005

Time in a Boring Bottle

This film at best, is nothing but amateurish detritus which not only bores the viewer but makes him contemptuously dislike all forms of snobbery or upper middle class portraits.

I've read a few of the other reviewers who attempt to become apologists for the director's lack of talent at establishing even a modicum of interest, they say if you haven't read Proust then you will have a difficult time comprehending this, which in itself is entirely fatuous and pomp. Imagine everyone having to read one of the most lurid and over-rated books of the 20th century to see a film which should substantiate itself. What an exaggerated claim. There's no place for "intellectual hubris" or their own "in-group manifesto" here.

I had high hopes for this film actually but after the first hour I saw that it was devoid and lacking any duality which would allow us to reflect on what is occurring. It is played by rigid, high handed oafs who are spoiled to begin with.

Most of the first hour is infested by artless vignettes which are probably the deluded Proust's memory, and they are reworked in such a disordered way that what comes out is merely a bunch of meaningless, trite and vacuous scenes with banal jargon, not only because they hold absolutely no interest for us, but because they do not invite a further contemplation of what 'time' was to Proust, imagine listening to a bunch of snobs talk about the weather, well, that is what this basically is, how philosophical can one get from that point of reference? It begins to wear thin after the first scene and you pray that there will be no more discussions by those prosaic characters. And it doesn't help that Proust himself is an insipid dandy who parades around in his best suits with his neatly trimmed moustache and becomes a voyeur, if you are asleep already, I don't blame you.

Many of the scenes deal with characters which are entirely void of any human warmth or expression, they are petty aristocrats, snobs who sit and drink tea and eat stuffy food while looking down at the poor. They are [...] who visit [...] brothels and think themselves noble because they hold high office positions during the war while the common man spills his guts out at the front lines. This is a complete waste of time!

Malkovich is even an absurd caricature in here, and his little dubbed French voice is entirely insipid. I laughed at most of this. We learn that he is a libertine who likes to visit male brothels and be whipped by sincere proletarian scum, wow, what a revelation on the mystery of human existence. From the looks of the period pieces and the arrangements, it was expensive but that doesn't carry a film with people walking around with no reference to the viewer. Film is supposed to move us in a way, either disgust us or interest us in some form of merit which it presents itself to us in human understanding but boredom to me is no artistic achievement. Don't even bother with this pretentious and ennui filled work.
December 2, 2004

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