“Suspended Time”

Director: Olivier Assayas

Starring: Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nine d’Urso, Nora Hamzawi

Plot: As society recedes in the spring of 2020, film director Paul Berger (Vincent Macaigne) returns to his childhood home in the provincial Chevreuse Valley. Still processing the legacy of his parents and feeling out the uncertain shape of the world to come, Paul hunkers down with his documentary filmmaker girlfriend Morgane (Nine d’Urso), his music journalist brother Etienne (Micha Lescot), and Etienne’s new girlfriend Carole (Nora Hamzawi). Squabbling over the minutiae of health protocols and the morality of a hermetic lifestyle mediated by ubiquitous online shopping, the makeshift household finds new ways to lacerate familiar wounds. Yet Paul also finds a surprising refuge in the compulsory quietude of pandemic life, an opportunity to reconnect with the books and art and enchanted forests of his youth.

Review:

This movie was…weird.

But stay with me.

Everyone remembers the shit show that was the COVID19 lockdown. The loneliness. The fear.

This story follows Paul, his brother Etienne, and their much younger girlfriends as they navigate pandemic life. I say ‘weird’ because Paul is like me during the pandemic. Making sure everything is wiped down before it comes in the house. Making sure there’s masking and social distancing going on outside of the home unit. So I really identified with him the most.

Paul is a filmmaker. A dreamer. During the film, he wonders how film will recover from the pandemic. He also stops and takes in the beauty and relationships around him.

I love the onscreen relationship with Paul and his brother Etienne. Both actors give great performances. My only annoyance is sometimes the film gets too wordy and self indulgent.

“Suspended Time” is such an apt title for this film. Obviously it’s set in a time of suspended reality so to speak. But the way the film is shot is almost always…still.

*** out of *****

“Suspended Time” is available now on DVD and to RENT on Google Play, Fandango and YouTube!