Le Temps Retrouve or Time Regained (1999): Starring Marcello Mazarella, Vincent Perez, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, John Malkovitch, Pascal Gregory, Marie-France Pisier, Chiara Mastriani, Arielle Dombasle, Edith Scob, Elsa Zyberstein, Christian Vadim, Dominique Labourier, Phillip Genoud, Melvil Poupad, Mathilde Seigner, Jacques Pieler, Hele Surgere, Andre Engel, Georges Du Fresne, Lucien Pascal, Jerome Prieur, Bernard Paitrat, Jean Claude Jay, Director Raoul Ruiz "In this book is written your life and the life of all men" said the Angel of Death, " to review it would take an eternity"...........Based on Marcel Proust's "Au Recherche Du Temps Perdu " or "Remembrance Of Things Past", largely considered not only a classic of French literature but possibly the world's longest literary work, this is director Raoul Ruiz' stunning film adaptation, released in 1999. This film received numerous awards, and the Cannes Film Festival ate it up, much like one long French banquet, complete with French wine. True to the novels (Swann's Way, Guermantez, Swann In Love), we follow the life of Marcel Proust, beginning with the end, that is, his death. Wracked with consumption, he is on his deathbed and his mind drifts from memory to memory, reliving his life and encountering all the people in it. Veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve stars as the brazen courtesan Odette. While perhaps Deneuve is too old for the part of a lively woman of leisure and lady of the night, she manages to capture the spirit of the character without a single flaw, being the terrific actress she is. John Malkovich turns his back on America momentarily to become French in the role of the Baron Du Charlus, who talks a big deal but is essentially a licentious and unsympathetic character. Vincent Perez is Morel, who engages in one affair after another (unlike Proust who appears to love only Odette and Gilberte (the beautiful and talented Emmanuelle Beart), his childhood sweetheart. Child actor Georges Du Fresne gets a lot of screen time as Marcel when he was a young boy. The most attractive aspects of the film, as everyone generally concurs, is the cinematography and art direction, which, while admittedly dreamy and glamorous, is quite frankly, Proustian. The camera moves freely, floating ghost-like between characters, giving us access to their conversations and private moments. There's a mix of intense natural sunlight and "evening" blue colors in the nightlife scenes. I can't describe how magical the movie's look truly is. The costumes are authentic to the Edwardian Era and World War I period (1900-1918). Though this film doesn't cover the historic aspects in too much detail (the various aristocratic characters i.e. the Guermantes, princes, dukes and princesses- speak of World War I, the German enemy and the aftermath of the Great War including the Spanish Flu Epidemic), the film manages to believably encompass a time and place, though perhaps the film "1900" does a better job of this. Fans of Marcel Proust will delighted, even if some portions are omitted but truthfully a film adaptation of the Proust "Time" cycle would take over 6 hours. Some people seem to miss some of the more shocking portions of the film. Proust was a bisexual writer who attempted to document the Belle Epoque as he lived it. In this film, we are presented with gay and lesbian characters - Albert and Albertine. There are two scenes which, subtle as they were, were quite powerful such as the scene in which Proust peeks in to Albert's bedroom door and discovers he has a sadomasichistic/erotic relationship with a male lover. Also, even while Proust is dying, he pays Odette money to perform oral sex on him. These little things are overlooked in the course of a long and beautiful film, with actors who truly live their role and give them nuance and color. One character in particular, Morel's American girlfriend, interjects the English words "It's absolutely disgusting!" during gossip of the Duchess and the Duke. This film is an enjoyable historic film, with a late 90's European film gloss and a feeling of respect and reverence for Marcel Proust. Wonderful and haunting, full of poignant moments and mesmerizing, at times magic realist moments. This film is sure to delight all Francophiles everywhere. Enjoy!

I think a movie where nothing happens should create a special atmosphere, visualize vague feelings, transfer some kind of poetry, or something - that's where it failed almost completely for me. I liked the main character wandering around in this superficial high-society-world, looking like an owl, but that doesn't carry through such a very long film. I never thought that something where Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart and Chiara Mastroianni (that's why I wanted to see this film - I liked her in the great 'Le Journal du Séducteur') are participating could be that terribly boring.

A wonderful and faithful sight of the XIX century French high society,through the eyes of Marcel Proust: splendid and crual era, where dream,childhood,death,loneliness and vanity fair are tightly melt. If you know Proust, you read once again this opus with a richest look. If you don't know Proust, go to the nearest bookshop, and you will realize what a wizard he was!

Fans of 8-1/2 and Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini's two most Proustian films by way of Jung) take note: Here's another worthy contender to those two masterpieces. It damn near reaches their level and it sure looks expensive and ultra-authentic, and only time will tell if it holds up as well. If you've read some Proust (I've only read around a 1000 pages of 'The Guermantes Way' myself and it was at turns the toughest, the most excruciatingly boring and most deeply rewarding reading I've ever inflicted on myself), you will know exactly where this movie is coming from; if you haven't, make plans to read some later, but watch this movie with the knowledge that there is NO STORY IN THE CONVENTIONAL SENSE; it is about how a person's memory works and how and what it chooses to remember and forget and how all these different things effect each other, blah, blah. It aims for the spirit of the books and a taste of what their atmosphere is like, and knows that to even approach this humble end it must, at the very least, begin by pushing the means of the cinema to their limit. It is not stupid enough to think it can equal the intellectual effect of Proustian prose. That would be absurd and impossible. So how does Ruiz's film fare? Suffice it to say that it does not take long to realize that this not a pretentious film but a deeply thought out, planned, and fully realized one. If it manages to capture the spirit of Proustian investigation, it did not do this easily and don't expect to digest it in one or two viewings. You will certainly be immediately impressed though, I'll tell you that much. Be prepared to ACTIVELY participate rather than be DONE TO. There are constant shifts of time period between the different stages of Proust's life and the fully mobile camera never stands still for your convenience.The acting is top notch and multi-faceted all the way and the production design is magnificent. Although it certainly looks very expensive, I can't imagine anyone doing a better job with less, except maybe Truffaut (Jules and Jim) or Renoir (French CanCan). There are plenty of distractions along the way, especially the butt-gorgeous Emmanuel Beart for us helpless men of hetero persuasion, not to mention the jaw-dropping, classical beauty of Chiara Mastroianni in her one scene, which she steals. On second viewing, after having just watched the Coen brothers' ultra-subtle and hilariously clever 'Blood Simple,' I did vaguely detect some weaknesses that someone like Eric Rohmer or Rossellini and Scorsese in their prime would have been careful to authenticate to 3 dimensions; but they weren't noticeable enough to put your finger on right away.I have never seen another Ruiz film before, but I think that the greatest thing he did here was to let Proust's general sense of things, his ultra-cultured neurotic sensibility, become his co-director on the film. I'm sure, at the very least, he made all his actors read the book he was adapting and discussed it with them thoroughly. Just the experience of doing that will enrich the aspirations and imagination of any actor, because Proust's writing is all about going into long analyses of things that may seem trivial at first glance. All I can say is Ruiz really blew me away on this film and I can't wait to see what else he had up his sleeve all these years that I've been missing his movies.