Changing Times

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Movie
German title Changing Times
Original title Les Temps qui changent
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2004
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director André Téchiné
script André Téchiné,
Laurent Guyot ,
Pascal Bonitzer
production Paulo Branco
music Juliette Garrigues
camera Julien Hirsch
cut Martine Giordano
occupation

Changing Times (Original title: Les Temps qui changent ) is a French drama directed by André Téchiné from 2004 with Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu .

action

The French engineer Antoine Lavau is transferred to Morocco to oversee the construction of an audiovisual center for French television. Secretly he hopes to find his childhood sweetheart Cécile in North Africa , whom he last saw more than 30 years ago. He finally tracks her down in Tangier , where she works as a radio host for a French-Arabic program. Antoine first sends her roses - anonymously. But Cécile, who is now married to the younger Jewish doctor Nathan, does not want to know anything about her secret admirer.

Meanwhile, Céciles and Nathan's son Sami comes to visit with his Moroccan friend Nadia and her son Saïd. Sami, who actually loves men, came from Paris primarily to see his friend Bilal again. Nadia, who knows about Sami's relationship with Bilal and shows understanding for it, wants to meet her twin sister Aïcha. The two sisters have not seen each other for six years, but Aïcha, who works in a fast food restaurant, cancels the meeting. She has to work too much overtime to make ends meet and is too tired.

Antoine and Cécile meet again in a supermarket when Antoine hurt his nose on a glass wall and Nathan gives him first aid. In order to win back Cecile's heart, Antoine asks his Moroccan assistant Nabila for help. She should find out for him whether spells can help him in his conquest. Instead, Nabila, who wants to help him get rid of his obsession, gives him a video showing the ceremony of casting a demon . When Cécile doesn't call Antoine's hotel as promised, she pays Antoine a visit at home. There he secretly hides a photo of himself and Cécile under their marriage bed. Cécile then decides to go on a trip with Antoine. After a car breaks down, they continue on foot. Antoine reminds Cécile that they once swore eternal love and admits that they will spend the rest of his life with her.

Antoine also visits Cécile on her radio station. However, Cécile immediately throws him out. Meanwhile, Nathan confronts Nadia with her pill addiction. For rehab, Sami is ready to return to Paris with Saïd and Nadia. Before Nadia leaves with Sami, she goes to the fast food restaurant where Aïcha works. She watches her sister, but does not dare to approach her. Sami, in turn, meets with Bilal one last time. When they say goodbye, Sami gives his friend a plane ticket to Paris. Bilal could come by at any time. On the advice of her colleague Rachel, Cécile, who is having an increasingly bad marriage with the unfaithful Nathan, finally accepts Antoine's advances. In contrast to Antoine, however, she only wants to get involved in a brief affair. Meanwhile, Nathan meets Aïcha and offers to examine her sick mother. Aïcha, a devout Muslim, initially hesitates to talk to Nathan, but then gets into his car and drives him along the coast. She also allows herself to flirt with him.

In a sudden landslide on the construction site, Antoine is seriously injured and then lies in a coma . From then on, Cécile visits his sickbed regularly and decides to leave Nathan. This in turn takes a new position in Casablanca . Many months later, when Cécile visits Antoine again in the hospital and burns the photo she found under her bed, Antoine wakes up from the coma and they both hold hands.

background

The shooting took place from the end of April to July 2004 on original locations in Morocco, including at Tangier-Boukhalef Airport in Tangier. For the main actors Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve it was the seventh film together. They had already played lovers in François Truffaut's drama The Last Metro (1980).

Changing Times premiered on December 8, 2004 in France at the L'Industrie du Rêve Film Festival. On February 12, 2005, the film was shown for the first time in Germany at the Berlinale and took part in the competition for the Golden Bear . The film drama was not shown in German cinemas. It was released on DVD on September 4, 2007 and broadcast on German television a good year later on October 21, 2008. In 2009 the film was released on DVD under the alternative title Life Is Changing .

Reviews

According to the lexicon of international films , the film does not only concentrate “on the inner drama of its protagonists”. He added "with the war in Iraq and the misery of African exiles at the gates of Europe current subplots" into his story, "which undermine the conflict". Cinema said that the "talkative, unhappy dubbed film [...] is so overloaded with problems" that "one quickly loses interest".

Prisma, however, found that "[no] movements, looks and especially the acting skills of the great French actor duo Deneuve / Depardieu in their seventh joint feature film are enough to expressively and movingly tell of indecisive love and hidden feelings".

Awards

Changing Times ran in 2005 in the competition for the Golden Bear at the 55th Berlin International Film Festival . Malik Zidi was nominated for the César in the category of best young actor , but was defeated by Gaspard Ulliel in Mathilde - Eine große Liebe . Téchinés Film also received three nominations for the Satellite Award in 2006 in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film, Best DVD and Best Original Screenplay.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of Release for Changing Times . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2007 (PDF; test number: 110 915 DVD).
  2. ^ Changing Times. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 19, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ cf. cinema.de
  4. ↑ cf. prisma.de