Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Adaptation of a Daunting Masterpiece
Review: Adapting Marcel Proust for the screen must be one of the most dangerous things a writer/director can try to accomplish. How can you introduce one character or incident without having to introduce them all? That's the wonder of Proust's work: the meaning of one tiny incident is dependent upon the other incidents, what came before, and what Proust will show follows from it.
That said, this is a remarkable attempt at capturing the spirit and main idea of "Recapturing Lost Time." All the main characters are here but for Swann, who I suppose "appears" in spirit during the performance of Vinteuil's sonata which causes Marcel to break down in tears at the concluding party (this piece of music was the "intermediary" between Swann and Odette de Crecy (Deneuve); its "little phrase" helped him fall in love with her--and thus helped produced their daughter Gilberte (Beart), Marcel's first love when he was a teenager). Swann's love affair with Odette was a model for Marcel's conception of love--of which we get a taste with the one scene featuring Albertine, whom he tried to eventually imprison & smother in the same way as Swann did with Odette, but with tragic result.
Ruiz chose the right manner to portray Proust's idea--shifts in time, multiple realities co-existing in the same frame. It can be bewildering to those unfamiliar with the work, but the acting, set & costume design are all just great, and the piece of music chosen to represent Vinteuil's sonata exactly right (unlike the piece of proto-serialism used in "Swann in Love").
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Interpretation Of The Classic On Film
Review: Director Raul's version of Marcel Prousts' Remembrance Of Things Past is captured beautifully and faithfully on film. It was made only recently in 1999, but it is essentially timeless. The strength of the film lies in the many dimensions it has, as with the novel. Proust's vision and world comes to life through the cinema, through good performances by the actors, period details and such beautiful, wistful music. The music and the way the film changes time frames, different perspectives, and the Impressionist, sensory images in memory that Proust created in the book are captured with great effect.For those who have read the long book, and for those who are Proustian, this film is a sumptuous cinematic feast. You don't have to appreciate French literature and film interpretation, you can just love costume dramas. The French are a different breed. They love their champagne, their waltzes and always, Paris. The frivolous lifestyle depicted in Odette's courtesan climate is but one element of French society, at least as it was in the late 19th century. Swann, as we know, is the author himself. Proust put himself in Swann, and became the restless, troubled youth searching for himself but unable to find peace of mind in a corrupt world of money and societal conventions, a world who looks innocent and glossy but hides a dark secret of prostitution and frail morals. The cast is superb. The music is delightful. What a great idea they had to cast a now older Catherine Deneuve as the courtesan whom Swann loves devotedly, Odette. This DVD is a great experienc e and I recommend this film to fans of French classics. One note: the film takes place in the latter portions of Proust's epic novel, and some of the characters and side stories were cut off due to time. Like Gone With The Wind for America, Remembrance Of Things Past is an epic masterpiece of French literature. Only there they call it "Au Recharche du Temps perdu" which literally means, in Proustian symbolism, "In Search Of Lost Time".
Rating: 
Summary: If you love John Malkovich...
Review: get this DVD because he is in it. Otherwise the quality could get better, I mean Kino distributed this disc.
Rating:
Summary: If you love John Malkovich...
Review: get this DVD because he is in it. Otherwise the quality could get better, I mean Kino distributed this disc.
Rating: 
Summary: A la recherche a decent Proust film adaptation
Review: I desperately wanted and expected (because of the mostly positive reviews) to like Ruiz's take on the last installment of Proust's In Search of Lost Time, but after having viewed it--not once but twice--the best thing I can say about it is that it means well. Of course, I understand the difficulty of adapting such an involved, disjointed, and lengthy work, but Time Regained seems to miss the mark (dramatically) in a number of respects. First and foremost, the film is simply unattractive. The film quality--in both the theatre prints and the DVD version--is grainy and drab, in a BBC-literary-adaptation kind of way. The colors appear washed out, and the art direction seems half-hearted. In short, I did not at all "get a feeling" of fin de siecle Paris--its elegance or its beauty. Some of the shots leave a distinct Made-for-Television taste in one's mouth. Secondly, I have read the entire work, and yet at times I had some difficulty following the film (because of the collage-like style, the incorporation of scenes from various volumes, and an uncertainty as to which actors were playing whom). Meanwhile, Catherine Deneuve seems somewhat miscast as Odette de Forcheville nee Swann nee de Crecy--she is among the most elegant, refined, and put-together actresses in the film, and yet she is supposed to be playing the vulgar social-climbing outcast. The role of the narrator and of Gilberte (Emmanuel Beart) are well-cast, but the greatest of all miscalculations seems to be the casting of John Malkovich as the lecherous Baron de Charlus. He lacks the presence (both physical and social) that we would expect of this classic Proustian character. The third and most damaging fault of the film is that it feels surprisingly soulless and cold. As we are bombarded with character after character, we are not given the opportunity of "knowing" or of even wanting to know any of them. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the novel was its long examinations of people, feelings, and sensations. This is inevitably lost in a film version and begs the question of whether Proust is suited to film at all. I can't think of a novel that better supports the argument that not all greats works of literature require film adaptations. Proust supplies us with more images and depth than a two-hour sitting in a movie theatre ever could.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Film, Not So Great DVD
Review: I have been a fan of Proust's novel for a long time, and I eagerly awaited this movie, having read articles about its making and, later, reviews of it. Yet I managed to miss it during the, oh, three days it played in the theater here. So I ordered the DVD the minute it became available, and I had two reactions: 1) For the Proust devotee, this is an amazing, beautiful film, probably the best that ever could be done in capturing the complexity and haunting quality of the novels. But 2) The DVD is a real disappointment: the subtitles obscure the image itself (instead of appearing below it), and they're white, set against what often is a dazzlingly white background. And of course you can't turn them off. So you can't get rid of the damn things, and you can't read them either. The image itself (the parts you can see) is pristine and gorgeous, and the sound is superb. And the movie itself--well, it's a masterpiece. Will you be able to follow it if you haven't read the books? I think so--parts will seem enigmatic, but then that's not such a bad thing. The overall story and point will, I think, be quite clear, and quite moving. Incidentally, I agree with the reviewer who said Malkovich is miscast. I love his work in general, but he seems out of place here, and it's all too clear that he had to re-loop much of his French dialogue. Still, the role he plays, and the way the director defined that role, are so interesting that you can overlook his performance somewhat.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting!!!
Review: I watched this movie and I, honestly, understood it. There were moments, as has been noted in other reviews, when the dialogue was "impossible" to to see, but it did not affect my understanding in separating all the characters or shifts in time and place which took place. I have not read any of Proust books and currently I am reading a biography of him purchased here on Amazon. I rented the movie first. I just like what I saw and decided the price of the DVD is worth it for a movie I found interesting and pleasurable.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting!!!
Review: I watched this movie and I, honestly, understood it. There were moments, as has been noted in other reviews, when the dialogue was "impossible" to to see, but it did not affect my understanding in separating all the characters or shifts in time and place which took place. I have not read any of Proust books and currently I am reading a biography of him purchased here on Amazon. I rented the movie first. I just like what I saw and decided the price of the DVD is worth it for a movie I found interesting and pleasurable.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont speak French? or Didnt read the book? GOOD LUCK...
Review: I've rented "Time Regained" because I love period pieces... I usually am able to enjoy subtitled movies even if I dont know
the language. However, this one was a major disappointment. Reading previous reviews and seeing that most people
thought this movie to be well made and enjoyable, I came up with 2 reasons why I didnt enjoy it myself, and these
two reasons seem to rely on each other - resolution of problem#1 seemed to depend on resolution of problem #2,
and vice versa:
1. I did not read the book, thus was completely confused by the large number of characters and how they relate to each
other. I was so confused by the names, that by the end of the movie, I only knew who Odette and ... I cannt recall now
(and I only watched it this morning 8( )... well, the one starts with "G", played by Emmanuelle. The time frames were
constantly shifting in the movie, so I thought that perhaps some of the actors are same characters, just portrayed
when young and then old. But this realization didnt help me to keep them straight anyway.
2. I do not understand a word of French. The subtitles were white and often displayed on white background, thus
absolutely invisible. No wonder I couldnt keep the characters straight, how could I if I couldnt even follow the story
due to inability to read the subtitles. At the end of the movie, there was a scene of big party/concert. It seemed to be important to me, because characters
were telling the main actor/narator about other guests' - I couldnt understand anything, who was related to who?
... ...Basically everyone can see that I dont know who's who and what he is doing... I beleive that if I read the book, I'd recognize the characters and knowing about them from the novel, I would
not be 100% depended on subtitles to tell me their life story. So, my suggestion is either get familiar with the book first or
learn French(but I think reading the book is better).
Rating:
Summary: Dont speak French? or Didnt read the book? GOOD LUCK...
Review: I've rented "Time Regained" because I love period pieces... I usually am able to enjoy subtitled movies even if I dont know
the language. However, this one was a major disappointment. Reading previous reviews and seeing that most people
thought this movie to be well made and enjoyable, I came up with 2 reasons why I didnt enjoy it myself, and these
two reasons seem to rely on each other - resolution of problem#1 seemed to depend on resolution of problem #2,
and vice versa:
1. I did not read the book, thus was completely confused by the large number of characters and how they relate to each
other. I was so confused by the names, that by the end of the movie, I only knew who Odette and ... I cannt recall now
(and I only watched it this morning 8( )... well, the one starts with "G", played by Emmanuelle. The time frames were
constantly shifting in the movie, so I thought that perhaps some of the actors are same characters, just portrayed
when young and then old. But this realization didnt help me to keep them straight anyway.
2. I do not understand a word of French. The subtitles were white and often displayed on white background, thus
absolutely invisible. No wonder I couldnt keep the characters straight, how could I if I couldnt even follow the story
due to inability to read the subtitles. At the end of the movie, there was a scene of big party/concert. It seemed to be important to me, because characters
were telling the main actor/narator about other guests' - I couldnt understand anything, who was related to who?
... ...Basically everyone can see that I dont know who's who and what he is doing... I beleive that if I read the book, I'd recognize the characters and knowing about them from the novel, I would
not be 100% depended on subtitles to tell me their life story. So, my suggestion is either get familiar with the book first or
learn French(but I think reading the book is better).
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