Melvil Poupaud gives an extraordinary, complex performance in TIME TO LEAVE (LE TEMPS QUI RESTE), written and directed by iconoclastic French auteur François Ozon (8 WOMEN, SWIMMING POOL). Poupaud stars as Romain, a selfish, self-absorbed fashion photographer who is suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not wanting anyone to know about his illness, he brutally breaks up with his boyfriend, Sasha (Christian Sengewald), belittles his sister, Sophie (Louise-Anne Hippeau), and goes against his doctor's (Henri de Lorme) suggestion to give chemotherapy a chance. The only person he chooses to confide in is his grandmother, Laura (the legendary Jeanne Moreau), who has been estranged from the family for many years for what they considered inappropriate behavior after the loss of her husband. Knowing his time is running out, Romain travels around with a small digital camera, capturing tender moments that are very different from the high-profile fashion shoots he is used to. He finds solace with his beloved grandmother, but to everyone else he is cold and distant, seemingly going out of his way to not take the easy way out by rediscovering life and love in his final days. All the while, nearly everywhere he goes, Romain sees himself as a child (Ugo Soussan Trabelsi), as the past invades his temporary present. Beautifully acted and intelligently written, TIME TO LEAVE, the second in a proposed trilogy about life and death by Ozon (following UNDER THE SAND), is a challenging, compelling work with a simply magnificent ending.

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Audio:
Dolby Digital - French
Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Deleted Scenes
Featurette

Melvil Poupaud: Actor
Jeanne Moreau: Actress/Director/Screenwriter
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi: Actor, 5 x 2 (2005)
Daniel Duval: Actor
Marie Rivière: 

Francois Ozon: Director

Olivier Delbosc: Producer
Marc Missonier: WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS

4 stars out of 5 -- "LEAVE charts its hero's acceptance of his plight without softening his prickly characters....It remains an honest look at a subject we all have to face."
"Moreau's few ripe scenes are choice, and she spices up the joint with her gravelly voice..." -- Grade: B-
"TIME TO LEAVE, in the end, explains very little, choosing instead to emphasize the essential paradox that an individual's life is never complete and always over too soon."
"Melvil Poupaud's twitchy, tender performance as the doomed hero is uniformly excellent."