esrosedotblog

BURNING OUT

Today's François Ozon's film was the elegiac

Le temps qui reste / Time to Leave (2005)

In this, a young man finds that he has metastasized cancer and only has several months to live.

How he deals with family and lover relationships, job, getting his affairs in order, is the quiet study of this film.

Melvil Poupaud is the young man whose acceptance of his fate is complete except for his denial of the importance of other people in his life.

His summary dismissal of a lover, a terminal fight with his sister, his neglect of his job follow and indicate the slow decline in the life of what/who is not a very nice person. Petulant and dismissive of others, his ego almost sinks him before he grabs a life raft, ironically, offered by a stranger.

It is a little hard to like him in the beginning. But Ozon keeps that part cool enough that it becomes interesting to see what he will do.

He does what I think most people would do. But in a quite unique way.

He does not go the medical route but stays with his caring and philosophical doctor. That is one good relationship. He reconciles with his lover even though he is still unable to tell the truth about what is happening.

The only completely candid (he is a photographer) contact is with his grandmother, the delightful Jeanne Moreau, now a matriarch of French cinema.

It is in their scenes together that the young man comes out of his shell and becomes deeply human and empathetic for us.

This is one man's journey. He is offered opportunities, some of which he turns down. He is offered others, some surprising, which he takes up.

This film escapes sentimentality. It shows courageous and rugged individualism. It points out that in times of trouble it may not be the best thing to follow traditional paths. That in the end, we are alone, and get to follow our own paths.

I recognize that I have not told you that the young man is gay. It is beside the point really. He does gay things and feels gay feelings apparently but most of all he gets to know himself. A younger version of himself appears to him from time to time to underline this. Very nicely done.

Ozon is very good at using reverie, memory and dreams as a way to show people's past and present and how they fit together.

This is the second film of a planned three about death, how to deal with it.

The other day we saw a film about the loss of a mate. Today, the near loss of one's self.

I liked this very much. I will plan to see it again.

That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films