Time Regained: Raúl Ruiz

It may not have been the smartest idea to watch a nearly 3-hour adaptation of a seven-volume French novel without familiarizing myself with said French novel. I spent much of Raúl Ruiz's Time Regained bored and confused. In fact, I spent much of the first 40 minutes desperately trying not to fall asleep. Judging from the snoring around me, I wasn't the only one in my theater having the same issue. But I did appreciate the aesthetic flourishes: the abandon with which characters and scenes transitioned between time periods; how props and even actors were physically moved along with the camera to create a sense of detachment; the attention to historical and culture details. The acting is lovely, especially John Malkovich as the masochistic Le Baron de Charlus. There was not an inch of him that wasn't ECSTATIC to be giving a performance en français. But if I'm to properly appreciate this film, it should only be after reading all of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. And that might take a while.

6/10