Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Le Temps Qui Reste - Time to Leave
Directed by Francois Ozon
Strand Releasing 07/06 DVD/VHS Feature Film
Not Rated

In My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen writes: "There is often more wisdom to be found at the edges of life than in its middle. Life-threatening illness may shuffle our values like a deck of cards. Sometimes a card that has been at the bottom of the deck for most of our lives turns out to be the top card, the thing that really matters. Having watched people sort through their cards and play their hands in the presence of death for so many years, I would say that rarely is the top card perfection, or possessions, or even pride. Most often the top card is love."

In this compelling drama, French director Francois Ozon has delivered his second in a trilogy of films about death. The first was Under the Sand in which a character played by Charlotte Rampling tries to come to terms with the loss of her husband. Here the lead character is a 31-year-old photographer who finds out that he has terminal cancer. This surprise shuffles his values like a deck of cards and forces him to make some very important choices on what to do with the three months he has to live.

Romain (Melvil Poupaud), a Paris fashion photographer, collapses one day while on a shoot. The doctor does some tests and diagnoses cancer. He suggests chemotherapy but Romain has no interest in it since the disease is already deeply entrenched in his body. The first thing he does is go to a park where he breaks down crying. That evening he visits his parents (Daniel Duval and Marie Riviere) who have accepted his homosexuality. But at dinner Romain lashes out at his single-parent sister Sophie (Louise-Anne Hippeau) in a verbal attack that even shocks him. When his father drives him home, Romain asks why he has remained married even though he has had many affairs. His father confesses that he still loves his wife. Father and son embrace, but Romain does not share his life-changing news.

Back at his loft apartment, Romain has sex with Sasha (Christian Sengewald) but later tells him that he doesn't love him anymore and that routine has taken the passion out of their relationship. He orders him to pack up his things and leave. Next Romain goes to see his father's bohemian mother, Laura (Jeanne Moreau), the one person in the world who loves him unconditionally. When she asks him why he has chosen to confide in her, he responds bluntly, "Because you're like me, you'll be dying soon." Later, Laura says, "Tonight, I'd like to slip away with you," but in reality she is trying to stay healthy as evidenced by her showing Romain all the pills and potions she is taking.

Writer and director Francois Ozon does not soften the rough edges and the self-absorption of this photographer whose profession tends to put him at a distance from people. Throughout the drama, Romain has encounters with his boyhood self during flashback scenes, including a private session with his sister and his first sexual experience in a church after a prank involving holy water. There is a heart-affecting quality to these trips down memory lane.

Still, Romain refuses to tell anyone in his family that he is dying. He does reach out in a surprising act of generosity and love to Jany (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), a waitress in a restaurant who has an unsual proposition for him. The closing scene takes place at the beach where Romain feels most at home in the presence of the sun and the sea. Le Temps Qui Reste is a lyrical drama which reveals that we each must encounter death on our own terms.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat