FILM #17: 'Le Temps qui Reste' ('Time to Leave') (2006)
Directed by Francois Ozon, this 81 minute French film explores the darkest moment of human life: knowing the time when one is to die. Romain (Melvil Poupaud)is a photographer who finds out that he has an inoperable tumor. The doctor tell him that even with chemo he has a 5% chance of remission. He decides to literally shut down everything and be as painfully honest to his emotions with the little time he has left.
That means breaking up with his boyfriend, silently accepting his fate and visiting his grandmother one last time. She is the only one he confides in and it is at this point of Poupaud's gritty performance that we see an eerie inner piece. Along the way, he sleeps with a couple and passes his entire fortune to his unborn child.
Straightforward enough but through Romain and the French culture we are witness to shocking intimacy and sadness that most American films just simply cannot unearth.
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