Dir. François Ozon, 2005, France, 82 mins
Cast: Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Daniel Duval, Marie Riviere, Christian Sengewald, Louise-Anne Hippeau, Henri De Lorme
Review by Martyn Bamber
The latest film from Francois Ozon, director of 5x2 (2004), Swimming Pool (2003) and 8 Women (2002), tells the story of Romain (Melvil Poupaud), a young photographer who is diagnosed with cancer and told that he has only a short time to live. At first, Romain decides to tell no-one about his illness, including his family. A scene at the family dinner table reveals that he has a strained relationship with his sister (Louise-Anne Hippeau), who has a baby, but who is separated from her child’s father. After Romain insults his sister over dinner, he severs communications with her, and avoids contact with his father (Daniel Duval), mother (Marie Riviere), and even his boyfriend (Christian Sengewald).
For someone who has always been happiest in the company of others, Romain suddenly feels that he can only deal with his illness by being alone. Eventually, Romain decides to drive to see his grandmother (Jeanne Moreau) at her house, and as well as confiding in her, he seeks solace by retreating into his childhood memories. Romain also has a chance meeting with a waitress (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) in a roadside café, but what seems like an inconsequential encounter develops into something more significant, and takes the film in a surprising direction.
Melvil Poupaud internalises Romain’s struggle for much of the film, and many of the events are viewed from his point of view, either by seeing events through Romain’s eyes, or by experiencing his dreams and memories. In fact, watching Romain on his own, quietly observing the people and places around him, Poupard’s performance is reminiscent of the solitary character he played in Eric Rohmer’s film A Summer’s Tale (1996). In the supporting role of the waitress, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi manages to create a memorable character in a small amount of screen time. She also continues to prove how versatile she is; just compare her performance here to her comic turn in Cockles and Muscles (2005) and her dramatic performance in 5x2 for evidence of her range and skill. The plot development that results from Romain meeting the waitress may strike some as contrived and even tacky, but it’s sensitively handled and poignant for both of them.
This material in Time to Leave could have been maudlin or crassly handled, but Ozon is restrained throughout much of the film, both in the straightforward visual style he adopts and in the low-key tone he creates. And while there are some explicit sex scenes in the film, these moments are sensitively handled. Instead of feeling lurid or voyeuristic, these scenes convey an emotional and physical intimacy between the characters. Ozon tells a simple yet poignant tale in a short amount of screen time, but while some moments are fleeting, others linger on, both in Romain’s mind and the audience’s, with the closing moments of the film being particularly memorable. Instead of a film depicting the physically debilitating effects of cancer, Time to Leave focuses on the psychological effect this can have on a person; how someone deals with this illness and what they decide to do with the time they have left.
|
.jpg)
