Suspended Time movie storyline. April 2020. The film director Etienne and his brother Paul, a music journalist, spend lockdown together in their childhood home with their new partners Morgane and Carole. Every room, every object, reminds them of their childhood and awakens memories of the absent: their parents, their neighbours… How far apart are the brothers from one another and from the roots they share? As the world around them becomes increasingly unsettling, a sense of unreality – and even of disturbing strangeness – invades their daily lives.
Suspended Time (French: Hors du temps) is a 2024 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nora Hamzawi, Nine d’Urso, Maud Wyler, Dominique Reymond, Magdalena Lafont, Lucrèce Carmignac, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet and Thibault Fasseur. The film was selected for competition in the 74th Berlin International Film Festival held 15-25 February 2024, where it competed for the Golden Bear.
About the Story
April, 2020. Paul (Vincent Macaigne), a noted film director, and his music journalist brother Etienne (Micha Lescot) return to their family home in Montabe as a global quarantine unfolds. They’re joined by Paul’s new girlfriend, documentarian Morgane (Nine d’Urso) and Etienne’s new girlfriend Carole (Nora Hamazawi).
Both men are divorced and have children with their previous wives. Paul’s ex, Flavia (Maud Wyler), makes frequent appearances on FaceTime to berate him about his lackadaisical approach towards their kid’s love of Netflix (and if this is a composite of Mia Hansen-Love, it’s not a flattering one). Together, the quartet drink wine and smoke cigarettes, argue about disinfecting groceries, and watching films too loud late at night.
It’s as if Assayas desired to reclaim the time stolen from him (and all of us) by utilizing these weeks and months as creative impetus, the germination for a cinematic time capsule. However, one assumes the nature of hindsight would have yielded something far more lucrative than endlessly repetitive and quite taxingly dull conversations. It would appear the semi autobiographical elements are incredibly prominent, seeing as Paul is a noted filmmaker who’s worked with Kristen Stewart, etc.
Likewise, the film is tonally related to Assayas’ 2008 title Summer Hours, where siblings gripe over the sale of a shared inherited summer home they never use and aren’t quite emotionally capable of letting go. But we learn little beyond the superficial tendencies of these characters, lost as they become in lengthy conversations about literature, music, inspiration and shared memories.
Arguably, it’s not a particularly cherished time for audiences to collectively revisit, and the obnoxious attempts at Assayas to prove his merits as having ‘done the right thing’ by strictly adhering to the fluctuating protocols during the early days of the pandemic result in a queasy, patronizing endeavor. There’s some exploration of how media influenced a potential neurosis in those deemed most ‘germaphobic,’ as evidenced by the prickly exchanges with a supposedly more amiable younger brother.
As Assayas’ alter ego, Macaigne falters under the impossible burden of making any of these exchanges worthwhile. We wait impatiently for a moment of relevance to transpire, for the siblings to finally tap into the existential pondering suggested by the narration. The women are even worse off, all forced smiles and bland pleasantries. Carole not being able to eat gluten and having to contend with Etienne’s penchant for making crepes is the height of the nonbiological drama.
Though it’s experimental in form, Bertrand Bonello presented something more profound with Coma (2022), an attempt to convey a similar regurgitation of reflections and psychological processing of this period. Assayas assails us with a vehemently ponderous exercise in which those who experience it are unwittingly giving up their own time to satisfy the self-indulgent whims of his.
Suspended Time Movie Poster (2024)
Hors du Temps
Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nora Hamzawi, Nine d’Urso, Maud Wyler, Dominique Reymond, Magdalena Lafont, Lucrèce Carmignac, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Thibault Fasseur
Screenplay by: Olivier Assayas
Production Design by: François-Renaud Labarthe
Cinematography by: Éric Gautier
Film Editing by: Marion Monnier
Costume Design by: Jürgen Doering
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Ad Vitam Distribution
Release Date: February 17, 2024 (Berlin)
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