On a very common and quiet Thursday night, as I was wandering with A. on Netflix, looking for a simple, easy, feel good movie, I found out that TIME TO LEAVE, a film directed by French director François Ozon, could be watched online. I had heard about this film, and knew that it was closer to a hard and disturbing drama than to a chick-flick. Nevertheless, I had seen many of Ozon's works, and I wanted to add this one to my list. Even if I believe A. didn't find it as powerful, extraordinary and true as myself, I still think that it is worth talking about for a bit in here. Because if you're a Netflix subscriber, maybe you'll want to take a look at it - even though it's not a light and entertaining piece of art.
Romain, a 31 year old gay photographer, has everything to be happy: a career, a gorgeous and young boyfriend, a life pretty enjoyable. One day, while shooting two models at the top of a Parisian building, he feels faint. After some medical exams, he meets with his doctor who's not carrying good news: Romain has a malignant tumor and lesions spread all over his body. He is dying. When? He doesn't know, as the disease could take a month or a year to kill him. With less than 5% chances to heal with chemotherapy, he decides to let time and life do their thing, and to take a last look at those he loves and the places he grew up in.
What can I say about such a film? Everyone - or almost everyone - is afraid of death. I am even having trouble to watch movies about it, when it's too obvious, too sudden, too unfair - put me in front of LOVE SONGS by Christophe Honoré, you'll see how anxious I'll get. However, Ozon treats it with such humanity, such power, such truth and such beauty that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Melvil Poupaud is incredibly touching and fascinating as a dying young man who tries to accept his destiny and to leave life as peacefully as he can. He goes to all the love ones to tell them the truth, stops lying, wanders around looking for things that make him feel good: a visit to his grandmother (the great Jeanne Moreau), a vodka in the afternoon, a walk in a park, a swim in the sea - all the things he wants to enjoy one last time.
The familial relationships are so well treated - the dialogue in between the son and the father, the phone conversation between the brother and the sister, the confession between the grandson and the grandmother, the love scene between the woman wanting to be a mother and the dying man who wants to leave something behind- that I felt alive and inhabited by emotions and feelings during the whole film.
In the end, I believe that Ozon made a film that is as much about death as about life - and this is why you don't want to miss it if you get a chance to see it.
MJ.
