Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust (1999)

Director:

Raoul Ruiz

Writers:

Marcel Proust (novel)
Gilles Taurand (scenario) ...

Release Date:

19 May 1999 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed. Looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood...

Plot Keywords:

Memory | Proust | Time | Youth | Marcel Proust

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Catherine Deneuve	...	Odette de Crecy
Emmanuelle Béart	...	Gilberte
Vincent Perez	...	Morel
John Malkovich	...	Le Baron de Charlus
Pascal Greggory	...	Saint-Loup
Marcello Mazzarella	...	Marcel Proust
Marie-France Pisier	...	Madame Verdurin
Chiara Mastroianni	...	Albertine
Arielle Dombasle	...	Madame de Farcy
Edith Scob	...	Oriane de Guermantes
Elsa Zylberstein	...	Rachel
Christian Vadim	...	Bloch
Dominique Labourier	...	Madame Cottard
Philippe Morier-Genoud	...	Monsieur Cottard
Melvil Poupaud	...	Le Prince de Foix

Also Known As:

Il tempo ritrovato (Italy)
Le temps retrouvé (France) (short title)
Marcel Proust's Time Regained (USA)
O Tempo Reencontrado (Portugal)
Time Regained (UK)

Runtime:

Argentina:158 min | France:169 min | Taiwan:158 min | UK:162 min | Canada:162 min

Country:

France | Italy | Portugal

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Gemini Films

Soundtrack:

Le temps retrouvé (Vocalise)

A remarkable movie if you know Proust but aren't looking for him

If you're looking for a movie that faithfully reduces In Search of Lost Time to 2 hours or so, this isn't it. But then, that's impossible, so you will be frustrated in your search.

What this is is a problematic movie.

If you don't know Proust's 4000 page novel, In Search of Lost Time, I suspect a lot of this movie won't make sense to you. If you do know it, on the other hand, you might be upset that X does not look like Proust's character A, that Y scene was left out, etc.

So, the best way to enjoy this movie - and there is a lot in it to enjoy - is to know Proust's novel well enough so that you can make sense of the movie, but then to forget about it and treat this as a movie that is not trying to film Proust's novel.

I could go on about the way the film jumps from scene to scene based on recollections of the narrator. One might say that that's Proustian, but Proust does not in fact jump from one short scene to the next. So I'll leave that aside.

What this is, for me - and I have seen the movie several times - is a remarkable collection of performances by some of France's greatest actors and actresses - and John Malkovich. The performances by Catherine Deneuve (as Odette; no, she does not look at all like I had imagined Odette from the novel, but she is radiant in this movie), Emmanuelle Béart (as Gilberte Swann; ditto), John Malkovich (Charlus; ditto in spades; he does not look at all like Proust describes Charlus, but he creates a remarkably moving and coherent character), Vincent Perez (Morel; he may look like Proust's Morel, but he gives him more depth), and Marie-France Pisier (Mme Verdurin) are all absolutely first rate, beautiful to watch. They make the film for me. Other characters important in Proust are either reduced to very small roles (the Duke and Duchess de Guermantes, the Prince and Princess de G) or vanish altogether (Swann, Marcel's father). But watching the above great actors and actresses give great performances is, for me, the great value of this movie.

If you want Proust, you'll just have to read it.

But if you want to see some of France's greatest actors and actresses at their best, you could do a lot worse than this movie.