Changing Times

last updated 8 January 2015

In Changing Times, French director Andre Techine 'œtakes the power of love and subjects it to the greatest possible stress—that of passing time,' said Kirk Honeycutt in The Hollywood Reporter. Successful engineer Antoine, played by Gerard Depardieu, has never gotten over his first love, Cecile, played by Catherine Deneuve. More than 30 years after their affair, he tracks her down in Tangiers, where she lives with her philandering younger husband, Nathan. But Cecile has forgotten Antoine, caught up in her lusterless marriage and an unexpected visit from her bisexual son, Sami, and his tranquilizer-addicted girlfriend, Nadia. Each character 'œstruggles with the past and loss of a romantic ideal.' Techine is 'œnear the peak of his form' here, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. He weaves myriad subplots into variations on the theme of 'œdivided sensibilities tugging one another into states of perpetual unrest and possible happiness.' In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, this could have been a mess. But Techine avoids heavy-handedness. When the movie ends after an absorbing 95 minutes, 'œhe refuses to wind his stories into a tight knot,' and lets threads dangle. The film is not without problems, said Iris Brooks in The New York Sun. It can't decide how to address the social and political situation in Tangiers and Morocco's legacy of colonialism. Yet with 'œvisual lyricism,' allowing the camera to soak up the rich dissonance of the city, he presents a vision of Morocco 'œat once romantic and strikingly realistic.'

Rating: PG-13