Les Temps qui changent / Changing Times

André Téchiné: Les Temps qui changent / Changing Times (FR 2004) Catherine Deneuve (Cécile), Gérard Depardieu (Antoine). "Can a first love turn into a last love?"

Les Temps qui changent at Berlin Film Festival. "Two of French film's great personalities: Catherine Deneuve and André Téchiné relaxing before the premiere". 12 Feb 2005. Photo: Berlin Film Festival.

Red Carpet: Les Temps qui changent. Dieter Kosslick accompanies André Téchiné, Catherine Deneuve, Paolo Branco and Richard Lormand to the premiere in Berlinale Palast. 12 Feb 2005. Photo: Berlin Film Festival.

FR © 2004 Gemini Films / France 2 Cinéma. D: André Téchiné. SC: Téchiné, Laurent Guyot, Pascal Bonitzer. DP: Julien Hirsch. Songs by Angélique Kidjo: "Tumba", "Okanbale", "Les petits riens". Starring Catherine Deneuve (Cécile), Gérard Depardieu (Antoine), Gilbert Melki (Nathan), Lubna Azabal (Nadia / Aicha). 98 min. Ugly digital look. Released thru Gemini, German subtitles. Viewed at Urania, Berlin Film Festival (Competition), 13 Feb 2005. After an absence of 30 years Gérard Depardieu revisits his teenage love Catherine Deneuve. The location is Tangiers, the actors are excellent, the storytelling not compelling, the ugly digital look distracting. I had a hard time trying to focus. Téchiné is not at his best this time.

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BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2005

"Antoine arrives in Tangiers from Europe. He is on an assignment to supervise the setting up of an audiovisual centre, his task being to expedite the process. However, Antoine is secretly hoping that he will find Cécile here. His quietly obsessive love for her has endured for more than thirty years.

Cécile has forgotten Antoine. She emigrated to north Africa and has since endured the trials and tribulations of marital routine with Nathan, a doctor of Moroccan-Jewish extraction who is her junior in age. The couple have a son, Samy, who lives in Paris and comes to visit them during the holidays.

The film takes place towards the end of the summer. Samy arrives at his parents’ house, bringing with him his partner, Nadia, and her child, whose father is unknown. Samy and Nadia are a chaste couple. Arming themselves, they protect each other from all manner of adversities in order to live out their various passions. Nadia has to learn to let go of her twin sister Aicha – and as a result finds herself embroiled in a bitter struggle against her inner demons. Samy has to learn to bring his affection for Bilal into accord with his tenderness for Nadia.

Theirs is a little holiday world in which Cécile finds it impossible to find a balance. Experiencing nothing but restlessness and self-doubt, the familiar has become quite alien to her. Lonely, wealthy and unmolested by life’s storms, Antoine appears like a ghost from the past expressing his desire for a pure, unshakable ideal of love. Does being cloistered inside his gentle obsession make him invincible? What is this all about? It’s nothing but a dream, counters Cécile, the realist. But, who knows, perhaps this dream will, unwittingly, become reality."