Time to Leave comes across with unexpected moments of illuminated stillness, and any movie that gives meaningful face time to the incomparable [Jeanne] Moreau can never be a total waste of time.
Time to Leave (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:50
Fresh:38
Rotten:12
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: A reflective look at our own mortality through the experience of a middle-aged French man, Time To Leave manages to pull at our heart strings without resorting to cliches, and leaves a lasting impression.
Theatrical Release:12-05-2006
Synopsis: Melvil Poupaud gives an extraordinary, complex performance in TIME TO LEAVE (LE TEMPS QUI RESTE), written and directed by iconoclastic French auteur François Ozon (8 WOMEN, SWIMMING POOL). Poupaud... Melvil Poupaud gives an extraordinary, complex performance in TIME TO LEAVE (LE TEMPS QUI RESTE), written and directed by iconoclastic French auteur François Ozon (8 WOMEN, SWIMMING POOL). Poupaud stars as Romain, a selfish, self-absorbed fashion photographer who is suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not wanting anyone to know about his illness, he brutally breaks up with his boyfriend, Sasha (Christian Sengewald), belittles his sister, Sophie (Louise-Anne Hippeau), and goes against his doctor's (Henri de Lorme) suggestion to give chemotherapy a chance. The only person he chooses to confide in is his grandmother, Laura (the legendary Jeanne Moreau), who has been estranged from the family for many years for what they considered inappropriate behavior after the loss of her husband. Knowing his time is running out, Romain travels around with a small digital camera, capturing tender moments that are very different from the high-profile fashion shoots he is used to. He finds solace with his beloved grandmother, but to everyone else he is cold and distant, seemingly going out of his way to not take the easy way out by rediscovering life and love in his final days. All the while, nearly everywhere he goes, Romain sees himself as a child (Ugo Soussan Trabelsi), as the past invades his temporary present. Beautifully acted and intelligently written, TIME TO LEAVE, the second in a proposed trilogy about life and death by Ozon (following UNDER THE SAND), is a challenging, compelling work with a simply magnificent ending. [More]
Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Daniel Duval
Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Daniel Duval, Marie Rivière
Director: Francois Ozon
Director: Francois Ozon
Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier
Studio: Strand Releasing
Reviews for Time to Leave
Directed by the prolific François Ozon, Time to Leave stars Melvil Poupaud as a fashion photographer facing the certainty that his life will soon be over.
A lyrical and heart-affecting French drama that reveals that we must each encounter death on our own terms.
Moreau's few ripe scenes are choice, and she spices up the joint with her gravelly voice of je ne regrette rien.
But this may be the first time that Ozon has played it too safe, leaving little to separate his film from the countless other portraits of dying scoundrels redeemed.
Yet another discourse, a creative one, about what people do when they are diagnosed with a terminal disease.
Time to Leave winds up a tiresome affirmation of man's biological duty to procreate; the position is simplistic verging on obnoxious, especially after 5x2's attack on the hetero family model.
Time To Leave takes the time to reflect... it is among the least tricky of Ozon's films, which also makes it one of the best.
François Ozon's latest follows in the footsteps of familiar made-for-TV-movie terrain but does so wearing Prada shoes.
... the film's haunting final scene, which plays out almost entirely without dialogue, catches Ozon at his beguiling, enigmatic best.
A thoroughly cinematic and honest film that thrives on in-between moments and knows how to make them grand.
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