73: Time Regained (a.k.a. Marcel Proust’s Time Regained; a.k.a. Le Temps Retrouve` - Original French title)

            I haven’t read Proust.  In fact, I would wager that I know more about Proust from Steve Carel’s Character in Little Miss Sunshine (2006) than from any other source, which is to say that I don’t know much about the enigmatic French writer at all.  I am given to understand that his works are both melancholy and difficult, and that they are extremely well regarded by those who study French literature.  In that regard I shall defer to such experts, but I can say that this adaptation of the final volume of his autobiographical In Search of Lost Time is breathtaking.  Though the subject matter of Time Regained (1999) is often slow to reveal its most interesting elements, the directorial vision of Raoul Ruiz infuses the film with a stirring motion often absent from costume dramas.

            Sometimes this motion is literal. Objects and actors traverse the physical space of the film without diagetic justification, seeming to float from one end of the frame to the other.  Sometimes the motion of the film is figurative, as characters perceptions and emotions shift while their bodies remain still.  Both primary and secondary movement are essential here.  The camera and the figures it records move fluidly through spaces and times in an effort to capture the loosely fixed narrative style of Proust.  I cannot say whether this technique emulates the source material faithfully, but I can note that it aptly conveys the nature of the recollections of the Marcel Proust at the center of this film.

            The narrative begins as Proust lies dying.  He doesn’t seem to cling to life so much as he simply wishes to recall it before his passing.  Photographs bring back floods of memories that occur in no particular order, and it is not uncommon for elements of a memory of young adulthood to bleed into a scene from early youth.  Places seem to take precedence over people at times.  Rooms and houses trigger memories of fantasies, which in turn trigger fantasies of memories.  Sometimes these fantasies are justified to the audience by latter developments, but often they remain Proust’s alone.  He recalls his extended family and the politics of social gatherings in the Gilded Age.  His thoughts touch on loves unrequited and associations not understood, but the dying Proust regards even the negative experiences with whimsy and fondness.

            Characters in Time Regained can be introduced briefly, remain absent from the film for over an hour, and then return with varying degrees of relevance.  Focus on any one relationship never seems to take precedence over any other.  Individuals enter and exit Proust’s world with unknown levels of his regard.  There is no way to explain or even discern a plot of Time Regained.  It is a costume drama of performances and style, and of particularly good work from a who’s who of French speaking actors.  Both John Malkovich and Emmanuelle Béart are engaging here in ways that had me wanting more screen time for each, but for very different reasons.    

Time Regained is a picture of set pieces and social nuances understood but never explained.  In this regard it reminded me of Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993), but without the sense of quiet urgency.  It is a film that is purposely slow, but never dull.  I think it can best be explained by its final sequence, in which a middle aged Proust stares out from the beach into the rolling tide of the ocean as his image as a boy plays in the surf.  In a hackneyed film this sequence too would be a memory – a reflection on the past – but I don’t think it is here.  I think that by this point Time Regained has done away with memory in favor of the thought that, perhaps, this is all happening at once.

Language: French

Runtime: 155 Minutes

Available @Youtube.com

Grade: 3 Hats Off