Time Regained on DVD (1999)

I found it boring

A customer from UK , 27/07/2004

I'm not averse to period drama but I was to this. Perhaps if I had read the book I would have enjoyed it. Trying to cover so much in a short film (relative to the book) left me thinking that probably I was being fed too little to make any sense of the whole. The result for me was a long film full of period costumes and sets, Barons and Countesses but not a lot else.

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Difficult but worth it

A customer from Cirencester , 29/05/2005

Trying to write anything involving Proust is the same as accepting an invitation to Private Eye?s Pseuds Corner. Yet Time Regained is a great film so long as you know roughly what is happening and who is who.

Two problems here. Time Regained is the last volume of a twelve paperback volume novel which was written as a continuous sequence. It flashes backwards and forwards all the time except that this last volume, and so the film, looks back from the end of the sequence. If you have not read the whole book there will be gaps in the meaning of the film, but I am not sure this matters.

The second problem is one of identifying people. In the book this is seldom difficult because the text says ?Mr X came towards me, smiled and said?? In the film Mr X does not wear a label so even with two readings of the book I still had my work cut out to know who the old man in the film was. Two or three viewings are probably needed so that you can recognise people easily.

But the film in its own right? A fascinating picture of Paris towards the end of the first world war. Relationships between people intertwine with conversation about progress of the fighting, deaths, hopes for the future, bombs and air-raids, and old links revived or broken. Worth seeing in its own right, but it also might possibly get you hooked on the book.

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The fault lies in the script

RustyT from Dorset , 25/08/2004

I did not like this film, although I am not faulting it for its production values, which are of a high quality. The acting and the portrayal of early 20th Century life is impeccable. We see the Paris of salons and mansions as it experiences wartime invasion from the Germans.

The fault lies in the script and indeed in the story. I will undoubtedly upset some of my French friends, but any novel (or in Proust's case several of them) which sets out to portray the lives of the aimless and decadent rich may offer you an aimless and tension-free milieu with an absence of purpose or direction. I found no character worthy of interest.

At times they show awareness that they are living in a sterile environment, but that doesn't help.

Quite a few people are killed 'off stage', but otherwise, not much happens. The film lasts 2½ hours.

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hard work

chungking from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 25/11/2005

Two and a half hours long but felt a lot longer. Took me three days to finish this film. Could have just not bothered after the first hour but it felt like one of those situations where you’ve gone so far and it’s too late to turn back now. Problem with this is that none of the characters are in any way engaging. So it’s all atmosphere and mood, but there’s hardly any atmosphere and the mood is practically the same throughout. Two stars only because it’s shot so well.

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The fault lies in the script

RustyT from Dorset , 25/08/2004

I did not like this film, although I am not faulting it for its production values, which are of a high quality. The acting and the portrayal of early 20th Century life is impeccable. We see the Paris of salons and mansions as it experiences wartime invasion from the Germans.

The fault lies in the script and indeed in the story. I will undoubtedly upset some of my French friends, but any novel (or in Proust's case several of them) which sets out to portray the lives of the aimless and decadent rich may offer you an aimless and tension-free milieu with an absence of purpose or direction. I found no character worthy of interest.

At times they show awareness that they are living in a sterile environment, but that doesn't help.

Quite a few people are killed 'off stage', but otherwise, not much happens. The film lasts 2½ hours.

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Le temps perdu, indeed

Deditos from Reading , 18/01/2007

Marcel, I sympathise, In Search of Lost Time is how I felt after watching this film. I watched only half of the DVD before giving up because I had entirely no idea who the characters were or what they were doing. For most of the time I thought that Odette and Gilberte were the same character at different times rather than mother and daughter.

Many of the positive reviews for this film remark that Proust's fans will love it. I think that's probably true; the direction was interesting and the acting was good. Marcello Mazzarella as Proust was superb in particular. But a good film should not _require_ the viewer to be familiar with it's source material, whether that be a seven volume novel or a PlayStation game. Maybe I'll try this one again, if I ever reach the end of reading Le Temps Retrouve, and after I've learned French.

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