Time Regained

Raúl Ruiz's daptation of the last volume of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu is a ravishing, indeed overwhelming film whose success comes at a price. Ruiz's respect for Proust may have caused him to set too-strict limits for the atmosphere in which his lush, inventive cinema usually thrives. The opening scenes, in which the bedridden author/narrator begins to conjure up the film's characters, have an exhilarating freedom, with the child Marcel creating a pure flow of images. But the film recaptures that freedom only intermittently once it settles into its encyclopedic survey of the narrator's WWI-era elite circle.

Ricardo Aronovich's photography and Bruno Beaugé's production design are immaculate, and the performances of Marcello Mazzarella, John Malkovich, Vincent Perez, Emmanuelle Béart, Catherine Deneuve, Pascal Greggory, Marie-France Pisier, and others are inspired. Plan on watching Time Regained twice. It's impossible not to admire this film, but whether it's also possible to love it, as I love five or six of Ruiz's films, is still unclear to me. At the Cable Car Cinema.
-- Chris Fujiwara