TIME REGAINED directed by Raul Ruiz,
adapted from the novel by Marcel Proust
by Ruiz and Gilles Taurand, produced by
Paolo Branco, with Marcello Mazzarella,
Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle
Béart, Marie-France Pisier and
John Malkovich. A Gemini Films/Canal+
production. 155 minutes. Opens Friday
(March 23) at Cinematheque Ontario. For
dates and times, see Rep Cinemas, page
98. Rating: NNNNN Rating: NNNNN
raul ruiz’s adaptation of the
last two books of Proust’s Remembrance Of Things Past, Time Regained, is an exquisite dream of a film. With camera movements like caresses and a genuinely Proustian sense of time, it is the highlight of Cinematheque Ontario’s four-film Proust mini-series.The huge cast of characters is very well served here, with special notice to Emmanuelle Béart’s chilly perfection as Gilberte, Marie-France Pisier’s magnificently vulgar Mme Verdurin and John Malkovich’s exquisitely malevolent Baron de Charlus
Ruiz, an Argentine fabulist, has been compared to everyone from Lewis Carroll to Borges and Buñuel. His sensibility is a uniquely apt match for the very difficult source material. Of the three adaptations in the Cinematheque program, Time Regained alone shows an appreciation for the rococo decadence of the period’s late art nouveau style, and only it realizes that the fantastically ornate chinoiserie of Gilberte’s teacups is as important, in its way, as a scene where characters visit a male brothel.
By comparison, Volker Schlöndorff’s narrative manipulation leads to a reductionist effect in Swann In Love, and the blank modern settings of Chantal Akerman’s La Captive simply miss the point
The other treat in the Cinematheque program is Percy Adlon’s Céleste, the story of Proust’s final days told from the point of view of his housekeeper, played by Fassbinder regular Eva Mattes.
Remarkably, two years after its premiere in the Cannes Competition, Time Regained is getting its first Toronto release. Not to be missed. At this early point, it’s the best film of the year.
johnh@nowtoronto.com
