Time to Leave

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Time to Leave ★★★ Les Temps Qui Reste 2005

French flick takes an unflinching look at death and dying from the perspective of a narcissistic young photographer who learns that he has terminal cancer and reacts in a very realistic, un-Hollywood way. First he has sex with his live-in lover and then immediately kicks him out; he insults and further alienates his single-mother sister during a family dinner while telling no one about his illness except for his outcast grandmother “because you're like me, you'll be dying soon,” he bluntly tells her. An absence of melodrama and an interesting subplot involving a childless waitress followed by a genuinely moving end makes for a fine French import. 85m/C DVD . FR Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Daniel Duval, Marie Riviere, Christian Sengewald, LouiseAnne Hippeau, Walter Pagano, Ugo Soussan Trabelsi; D: Francois Ozon; W: Francois Ozon; C: Jeanne Lapoirie.