‘Time Regained’ one to remember
Marcel Proust was known for writing about the past, but as depicted by the great Chilean-born filmmaker Raoul Ruiz, Proust might just have been someone who was always, in a sense, looking to the future.
In the French film “Time Regained” (1999), possibly the greatest adaptation of a Proust work, the author seems unable to live in the present. The value in the here and now is, paradoxically, its future as a past memory.
This pretzel-like logic is at the heart of “Time Regained,” the power of which has only deepened now that the film itself is a nearly 2-decade-old memory. Recalling the great works of Luis Buñuel, its seemingly shapeless, odd narrative belies its intense underlying structure.
It has been newly restored, and plays twice apiece at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the Berkeley Art Museum’s Pacific Film Archive, including at both venues on Sunday, March 18.
Boasting a stellar cast — Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, John Malkovich, Vincent Perez, Chiara Mastroianni, Marie-France Pisier — and a pull-out-the-stops design that brings to life World War I-era upper-crust Paris, “Time Regained” is a nearly threehour grand experiment.
Proust (Marcello Mazzarella) is on his deathbed in 1922, looking back on the events of his life from childhood, but mostly focusing on the years 1910-18. Proust’s tendency to blend memories is captured by Ruiz in a unique way: In a haze and maze of characters, often two Prousts of different ages will be watching events, and at other times Proust will age, then grow younger, during the same conversation.
It’s not a re-creation of the past; it’s a re-creation of memories of the past, and that makes sense. We really don’t remember a period in our lives sharply and objectively, do we? What we remember is our impressions of that time.
In keeping with the fluidity of the memories, Ruiz (1941-2011) often employs sumptuous long takes, with complicated blocking where rows of people slide back and forth within a room without seeming to move.
What’s also interesting about Proust in this depiction is his texturalization of his past. He seems oddly uninterested in truly getting to know his friends and neighbors, but only in experiencing them and storing them away as memories.
Proust was a people fetishist, and Ruiz captures that perfectly in bold, original strokes.
“Time Regained”: 2 p.m Sunday, March 18, and March 25. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. (415) 978-2787. www.ybca.org; 1 p.m. Sunday, March 18; 3:30 p.m. May 6. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center St. Berkeley. (510) 6420808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
Albany Film Festival: The plucky film festival is in its eighth year, having started as a one-day event at the Albany Community Center, and has expanded to Landmark’s Albany Twin Theatre (1115 Solano Ave.) for most programs. The festival opens at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 17, with its popular Kids’ Matinee ($5 adults, $1 children) of short films, an appearance by the Oakland Youth Chorus and a workshop, all at the Albany Community Center (1249 Marin Ave.). It closes March 25 with six short film programs at the Albany Twin. www.albanyfilm fest.org
“Major League”: Spring training is in full swing and Opening Day is just around the corner, so grab a beer and a dugout seat at the Alamo Drafthouse’s New Mission theater and take in this goofy, lovable 1989 baseball classic about the hapless Cleveland Indians (which they were, at the time). Tom Berenger is veteran catcher/team leader Jake Taylor, Wesley Snipes is Willie Mays Hayes (“I hit like Mays, and I run like Hayes”), Charlie Sheen is closer Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, and Bob Uecker, the only real-life Hall of Famer in the film, is radio playby-play man Harry Doyle (“Juuuust a bit outside”). 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, March 17-18; noon Monday, March 19. Alamo Drafthouse’s New Mission theater, 2550 Mission St., S.F. (415) 549-5959. www.drafthouse.com/ sf