Sweet Death -- The Ultimate Lover
Added 6/1/2008
What a sensuous, compelling, hypnotic movie. I am unfamiliar with director Francois Ozon's other films, but after watching "Time To Leave," I will make it a point to rent those as well.
"Time To Leave" is a bittersweet story about a young, French fashion photographer, Romain (sexy, handsome Melvil Poupaud), who learned that he had terminal cancer and a short time to live. Rejecting his doctor's wish that he undergo chemotherapy to fight the disease (he had less than a five percent chance of beating it), Romain accepted his fate and began to tie up the loose ends of his life, which included severing his relationship with his dependent male lover, rebonding with his paternal grandmother, reconciling his split with his sister, expressing love to his father, and creating another grandchild for his mother.
Romain's childhood was carefully interwoven with his adult life and was a testament to the fact that no matter how long we live or what we experience, in spirit, we remain children. The music score is as sensitive and haunting as the movie--a perfect collaboration.
The death scene was exquisite. It reminded me of the final scenes of "A Death in Venice" and "Ask The Dusk," which also occurred on the beach. In this instance, Romain, now a pale, skeletal ghost of himself, took one last swim in the ocean, lay tired and worn on the beach as suntanned children dashed about laughing and playing, then slipped away gently and quietly to the Other Side. As he had desired, he died alone. It was indeed his time to leave.
Although the subject of this film was the physical deterioration and death of the main character, the movie was not depressing. In its own way, it was uplifting.
I would have rated this movie 5 stars if it had included a few of the deleted scenes that would have better defined the storyline. I would have also added more scenes illustrating Romain's rapidly deteriorating health.
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Sexy, Heartbreaking & True
Added 1/24/2007
This movie joins two of my favorite artists now working in film:
director Francois Ozon and actor extraordinaire Melvil Poupaud. This
movie is beautifully shot, exquisitely seductive in many parts and
finally movingly sad. A true work of art. Ozon is the best thing to
happen to movies since Almodovar. And Melvil Poupaud is not only one of
the best actors of his generation but he is also sexy beyond belief.
Bravo to all involved.
I hope that Ozon will work again with Melvil because the two are exquisite together. It is like watching Almodovar's work with Penelope Cruz or Carmen Maura.
Melvil Poupaud should be an international star any time soon.
4 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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The Poetics of Dying
Added 12/1/2006
François Ozon (Water Drops on Burning Rocks, 8 Women, Swimming Pool, 5X2) is one of the most fascinatingly talented French directors on the scene today. His films have a simplicity, a direct approach to the mind and the heart, and an extreme respect for both his actors and his audience - factors that allow him a means for communication that is rare and proves he has few equals. In LE TEMPS QUI RESTE (Time to Leave) he addresses that earth-shattering moment of being informed that death is imminent and shows us how one character copes with that information and how it changes his remaining days and his history of relating to others.
Romain (Melvil Poupaud) is a handsome and successful fashion photographer who is gay, has a lover Sasha (Christian Sengewald), but is somewhat estranged from his family. For some reason he cannot relate to his pregnant sister Sophie (Louise-Anne Hippeau) despite his mother's (Marie Rivière) pleading and his father's (Daniel Duval) distance. During a fashion shoot Romain faints, is taken to the doctor (Henri de Lorme) who informs him he has metastatic cancer for which there is little hope (except for chemotherapy and radiation therapy) that he will live past a few months. Romain opts to go without treatment and begins to face his remaining life with silent gloom. After a very sensuous sexual encounter with Sasha (Ozon holds nothing back in depicting this!), Romain decides to quit his job, tells Sasha to leave, separates from his family, and visits his beloved grandmother Laura (Jeanne Moreau, as exciting an actress as ever!) who shares her philosophy of living and dying and bonds even more closely with the grandson who mirrors her own life. Her sage wisdom is what grounds Romain.
Romain, alone, travels about France, meets a sweet couple in a cafe - Jany (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and her husband Bruno (Walter Pagano) who are unable to have children - and after consideration Romain consents to comply with their request to impregnate Jany but only if Bruno is part of a ménage a trois in the process. The couple discovers Romain is dying after Jany becomes pregnant and Romain for the first time is able to show tenderness in his relationship with them. Somewhat changed in outlook Romain returns home, has a tender talk with his father who accepts his son's sexuality, attempts a reconciliation with Sasha unsuccessfully, and even responds to a letter from Sophie. His missions completed he travels to the ocean where the film ends in one of the most beautifully subtle, tender and genuinely realistic ways.
In every way this film is satisfying. The actors are to the person excellent with Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi particularly outstanding. But the kudos go to writer/director Ozon who once again proves that his enthusiasm for his field of art is boundless. He is one of the more important figures in cinema today. A brilliant, quiet, immensely satisfying film. Grady Harp, November 06
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Sheer Perfection
Added 11/25/2006
"TIME TO LEAVE"
An almost perfect movie
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
"Time to Leave" (Strand Releasing) arrived yesterday and it is really something. It is one of those rare movies that holds your interest from start to finish. In fact, it even does more than hold your interest--it mesmerizes. I would even go so far as to say that "Time to Leave" is a perfect movie. It is gorgeously acted, beautifully filmed; the script is literate and sensitive. It has everything going for it. It will move you like few movies can.
Directed by Francois Ozun, "Time to Leave" is a French film that deals with a high profile 31 year old fashion photographer who is diagnosed with a brain tumor and has a very short time to live. As Romain, a good looking gay man comes to terms with this lot in life, he decides not to disclose his condition t anyone except his grandmother, beautifully portrayed by legendary French actress, Jeanne Moreau. As the seriousness of his illness sets in, Romain becomes cruel to his lover, rude to his pregnant sister and uncommunicative to his mother and father.
This is a feel-good tender movie about death and I realize that the statement is somewhat of oxymoron. You have to see the movie to understand why I say that. Is it possible to feel good about a beautiful young man dying at his prime? I don't know why but I felt good the entire time I watched this brilliant movie. One of the amazing qualities of this movie is its attitude toward being gay. The main character is gay and when he learns that his life is almost over, he begins a voyage of debauchery and descends into a world of anonymous sex. But that is not what "Time to Leave" is about. Being gay is not even an issue in the film and it just happens to be--nothing more. The idea of saying goodbye is not a new one in the cinematic world. The farewell to the earth here is expressed in a novel way and death becomes a welcome relief for Romain. It appears that the director was influenced by the goodness of mankind and the tenderness of life. There are some issues with political correctness but the way Ozun has woven his story, they are glorious. It is obviously Ozun's love for life that guided him to direct this movie. I was extremely moved by the movie but it did not leave me depressed as death usually does. Instead, it uplifted my spirit and made me realize how much death is a part of life. The movie haunted me and still haunts me.
Romain explains why he trusts his grandmother with the news of his impending death. It is because she is nearing the end of her life even though she is healthy. The scene between Melvil Poupaud (Romain) and his grandmother, Laura will tug at you. As Romain drives away after telling his grandmother that he is going to die soon, you feel as if you have to cry yet you don't. The exchange between the two of them is moving and tender and you don't succumb to the morose but rather are uplifted.
The existentialism of the plot provides the thoughtful sequences we see on the screen. The question that the film asks is if it is possible to find peace at the end of life. This becomes an even harder question when life is stripped away at a young age. This is a candid film which is sexy and hypnotic. It seems to me to be a very personal study of life in the face of death.
If you are still not sure how you feel about the movie when it is over, the bonus features may clear up any questions you might have I do not understand why the deleted scenes were deleted because to me they further explain the life/death experience and the featurette on the making of the film gives excellent insight. This is one that you should not miss. Here is an example of what a movie should be.
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Death in France
Added 8/30/2006
"Time to Leave" is Francois Ozon's version of a melodrama/tearjerker in the same vein as the Bette Davis films of the 30's and 40's particularly "Dark Victory." His take on the musical, "8 Women" is weird, stylish, over-the-top but ultimately successful. "Swimming Pool" is a sexual thriller with style to burn and features a nude scene by Charlotte Rampling: all glorious 60 years of her.
Ozon's central character Romain (Melvil Poupaud) is selfish and pouty and the fact that he is dying from cancer does not make him less so. After learning that he will die soon, Romain tells no one, proceeds to thoughtlessly dismiss his lover, brutally insult his sister at a family gathering and generally act as thoughtless as one who is dying has a right to. It can go either way, can't it? Facing imminent death do you let loose with a fury of invective and self-loathing or do you forget the past and attempt to make amends for a life not particularly well lived. For the most part, Romain chooses the former until he seeks out his grandmother (the still radiant Jean Moreau who adds much needed humanity and thoughtfulness here): his shield dissolves and he looks for and receives warmth and love. When Grams asks him why he has chosen to tell her about his impending death, he says "It's because you are also so close to death...you will understand." Weak, self-centered, passive-aggressive hogwash.
Though Melvil Poupaud does a good job as Romain and Ozon structures and stages his inevitable death as if Romain is Manon in "Manon Lescaut," Romain remains an unabashed anti-hero: one whose first concern is himself and though a subplot involves Romain valiantly donating his sperm to a childless couple...one that you can't help but despise yet nonetheless grudgingly admire for his single-minded rage against an inevitable death without letting go of his basic, though loathsome nature.
2 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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beauty, not death
Added 5/1/2009
i feel this flick is about beauty, ultimately: else, why would francois choose melvil poupaud, one of the most etherially beautiful men in cinema, to play the lead? only eduardo norriega is comparable. the beauty of choices, the beauty of dying with one's dignity intact (even if that means dying alone), the beauty of real relationships, the beauty of one's home (whether that be a place or a state of mind).
one of the crew members in the featurette described melvil as looking like christ: when he is skeletally thin and shorn of his lovely, curly locks, his beauty is not diminished, just changed -- it is ethereal, unearthly, preternatural. very like the achingly, exquisite beauty of the christ of the pieta. here is a beauty which is both cerebral and visceral; no escape from it's power. there is no escape from the power of this film, either; it latches on and does not let go. take the ride; you shall not regret the time spent in such beauty with such exalted company.
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Charming Touching Story
Added 9/5/2008
Sharing a traditional charm of a French cinematography, Francois Ozon tells us of a bi-photographer's preparations to meet inevitable resulted eventually from his brain tumour development.
A touching story.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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not one of the best movies on dying
Added 6/25/2007
I just didn't see what was so great about this movie. The description made it looked like it would be a wonderful tearjerker of a movie. Instead, I found myself impatient for the end.
Romain is a young gay fashion photographer, who likes to score coke on the side. When he blacks out on the job, he is told, by his doctor, that he has an inoperable brain tumor. In addition, chemotherapy wouldn't do much help and he has little time left.
So, Romain rejects any form of treatment. He decides to alienate himself from his boyfriend and family. He breaks up with his boyfriend. Of course, one can understand that he is trying to spare his boyfriend the grief and pain of his pending death. Despite his parents' plea to be nice, he insults his sensitive sister. Regardless of everything, he doesn't tell anyone about his health. He only tells one person: his grandmother. He only tells her because she would die soon.
After that, the movie pretty much lost my attention. Even when he was asked to impregnate a woman since her husband was sterile. His dying scene wasn't touching at all. You wanna cry hard about someone one dying at the beach? Then, go rent *Beaches*.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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