TIME REGAINED (1999)

Cast

Plot

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed; looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood, his youth, his lovers and the way the Great War put an end to a stratum of society. His memories are in no particular order, they move back and forth in time. Marcel at various ages interacts with Odette, with the beautiful Gilberte and her doomed husband, with the pleasure seeking Baron de Charlus, with Marcel's lover Albertine, and with others; present also in memory are Marcel's beloved mother and grandmother. With breath-taking cinematograghy and a suberb cast, a rich mixture of baroque and fantasy, and recreated flawlessly by the Chilean director Raoul Ruiz, the story itself explores the relationship existing between Proust and his own fictional creations. It seems as if to live is to remember and to capture memories is to create a work of great art. The memories parallel the final volume of Proust's novel, "Remembrance of Things Past". An extraordinary conflation of avant garde art film and deluxe literary period drama, internationally acclaimed as the most successful adaptation of Marcel Proust's work.