I put the question mark about it perhaps being the greatest film ever made because I know that that judgement can shift with Time; that dreadful clock ticking that moves us into and out of life. Is Ruiz the greatest director ? He is marginalised and patronised by the clan of those who believe they are an authority of Cinema/Film/Movies ( call it what you like. ) Marginalised because he is marginal, and for me it is in the margins of mainstream and a lot of pretentious ' Arty ' rot that in my opinion true film exists. ' Time Regained ' despite his prestigious cast is a long meditation on how subversive Proust's work is. Ruiz cleverly shows how homosexual his ' In Search of Lost Time ' is, and he does this by showing us a straight man finding out that throughout his life the people he has known have preferred their own sex. Ruiz also has the audacity to show us ' straight ' actors colluding with him in this process. The male brothel scene alone astonishes, perverse in the best possible way of showing us soldiers of WW1 lazing around, and enjoying every second of giving sexual satisfaction to their male clients. Put Fassbinder and Jarman in the mix as directors and add Ruiz to the brew and you have marginal film at its very best. I could go on by saying how beautifully made this film is with its fluidity of scenes, and refer to Welles and Ophuls as ' influences ' on Ruiz, but I won't brutalise marginality by doing so. Ruiz is his own man, and if his other films are not known to viewers I suggest they hunt them down. It is also amazing to see Malkovich, Beart, Deneuve flow with ease throughout but my perverse choice is the wonder of seeing Marie-France Pisier as Madame Verdurin and Edith Scob as Oriane de Guermantes. I could watch their scenes forever, and add in John Malkovich as Charlus, perhaps the greatest character in all of so-called fiction. I want to withdraw my question mark, but refuse to hoping that in my lifetime I will see an even better film than this. I doubt it.
Review of Marcel Proust's Time Regained
