Suspended Time

Does anyone want to know what Steven Spielberg got up to during lockdown? What about Scorsese? Almodóvar? Tarantino? Director Olivier Assayas (whose best-known work in the English-speaking world probably remains 1996’s Irma Vep) wants audiences to know how a semi-fictionalised version of himself spent those hazy weeks in 2021, when much of the world was essentially grounded, confined to their homes, and when time was suspended.

Now it gets even hazier: Assayas directs actor Vincent Macaigne (who is rather good fun) as Paul, a version of Assayas, in an autobiographical retelling of how a French filmmaker with Assayas’ exact filmography spent lockdown. Paul bickers with his brother Etienne (Micha Lescot) as they adjust to spending the most time with each other since childhood, remembering things they’d forgotten about their relationship. The occasionally confrontational brothers are joined by their girlfriends (Nora Hamzawi as Carole and Nine d’Urso as Morgane) as the quartet speculates on the changing world outside (and inside).

The takeaway from the film appears to be that depicting lockdown was a pretence for making an autobiographical comedy. It’s a story that deals with lockdown without directly being about it. All the same, the feature is inclined to deal with it a bit too much. The day-to-day details may not be universal, but it was a shared experience, not too far in the rearview mirror, and all the OCD-esque obsessions with hygiene, preoccupations with mask-wearing, familiarity with viral transmission and how long viruses can survive on a range of surfaces? Too soon, Mr Assayas – but also, not soon enough, as these moments can feel outmoded, meaning they’re not quite the source of comedy that they’re intended to be.

Hors du temp does come across as slightly self-indulgent, although it avoids being self-satisfied. Most people would have appreciated spending their lockdown in a large home in the French countryside, but the movie is not smug, nor was it constructed with a lack of self-awareness, so it’s not a case of just dismissing the concerns of Assayas and co as first world problems. The film is mild, gentle (with a beautifully lyrical voice-over) and (intended in the most complimentary way) very French.

Oliver Johnston

Suspended Time does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.

Watch a clip from Suspended Time here: