The Time Left

’’Le temps qui reste’’ has been successfully rendered as ‘’Time to Leave’’ and nothing is lost in translation because the question remains...how do you spend the time left when you know you are dying in 3 months?
Francois Ozon had the perfect script for a melodrama at best or a tear-jerker at worst. Romain (Melvil Poupaud), a young, handsome (very handsome) Paris fashion photographer collapses in a shoot and at the hospital he learns he has terminal cancer. So, we are to see how he’ll spend his last months. Dilemma no.1: Fight or succumb? With less than 5% possibilities of the chemo working, he decides against it. The doctor sounds disappointed: ‘’you are young; I’d rather you gave your fight.’’ Dilemma no.2: To tell or not to tell? And if ‘’to tell’’, to whom? Romain’s relationships with his family are distorted. He decides to tell no one except his grandmother (Jeanne Moreau) and that because ‘’you are like me, you will die soon’’. Speaking of honesty...We can understand why he has drifted apart from his parents but the aggressive behaviour towards his sister is never explained. However, he keeps having flash backs from their happy childhood and this makes you wonder even more why now he can’t stand his sister’s presence. ‘’It’s not you’’ he tells her on the phone ‘’it’s me’’. But this is all you’ll get as an explanation.
The less time is left, the more he remembers himself as a child. Is it a regression to happier, more innocent times? Probably. I read in the majority of reviews for this film that Romain tries to reconcile with his family and lover before he dies. Well, I didn’t see that, except if you think that a ruined dinner, a quick hug, a cruel break up and an uneasy telephone conversation are signs of reconciliation. My impression is that Romain realised his true feelings for his family and lover but did not share his ‘’knowledge’’ with them. He just captured those feelings in the photographs he took of them. As for his ‘’act of charity’’ to the childless couple, it may seem a bit out of the blue but it is quite understood in the course of the film.
So, to return in my first comment, Ozon had the material for a tear jerker melodrama. But for those familiar with his films (The Swimming Pool, 5x2) it was hardly a surprise that the film offered no easy, cheap emotion. It was true and original. But in the end, you’ll probably find yourselves with tears, if not for Romain, but for the lyric beauty of the last scene. Romain never seemed more peaceful.