Director: Raoul Ruiz
Year Released: 1999
Rating: 0.5
While I have to hand it to Ruiz for even attempting to film Proust - one of the most challenging writers ... ever - the undeniable boredom produced by this film prevents me from saying many positive things about it. Sure, the material is dense, but the treatment is so slow and the characters both foppish and self-obsessed. The story is so flat it should have remained a book, since the action is completely internalized - people's interactions with and personal feelings towards others - that filming the root source - Remembrance of Things Past - is a foolish endeavor. If you ask me months down the line what I remember of Time Regained I will admit I was (a.) utterly confused the entire time as to who all these wonderfully dressed people are and what they mean to each other and (b.) put off by how the film simply jumps from one conversation at a party/social gathering to another, said conversations either revolving around (a.) how much everyone loves so-and-so or (b.) how much they despise him/her. Ruiz attempts to liven up the visuals with his swaying camera (representing water and time) and brilliant color schemes - every frame looks like a meticulously composed photograph - but not even loveliness such as this can keep me from being utterly disinterested.
