Changing Times (film)

Changing Times (Les temps qui changent) is a 2004 Morocco-set drama featuring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu and directed by André Téchiné.

Depardieu plays a construction engineer, Antoine, who goes to Morocco to oversea a new project and catch up with the woman he loved 30 years ago, played by Catherine Deneuve.

Plot

!—WARNING—!

Article below this line is likely to contain spoilers.

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Antoine, a hard-driving engineer, has literally counted the time (31 years 8 months 20 days) since he last saw Cécile (Deneuve). He has spent years tracking down his ex-lover and has even investigated the possibility of using witchcraft to pave the way for a reunion.

Cécile, meanwhile, has married a much younger doctor, Nathan, and hosts a French-Moroccan radio show in Tangier. Antoine arrives in Tangier to oversee construction of a media center. He anonymously sends a bouquet of roses to Cécile at the radio station. The bouquet arrives just as the station broadcasts a song containing the lyrics "we remember nothing." Cécile tosses the roses into the trash without giving them a second thought.

Antoine and Cécile are eventually reunited in a Tangier supermarket. Antoine walks into a door, smashing his nose, and Nathan — who is shopping with Cécile — rushes over to administer first aid.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Cécile's bisexual son Sami has unexpectedly arrived in Tangier, accompanied by his live-in girlfriend Nadia and her 9-year-old son Said. Nadia hopes to reconnect with her twin sister Aica, a man-hating observant Muslim who works in a Tangier McDonald's.

Nadia has an addiction to tranquilizers, though, and Sami often leaves a sedated Nadia to engage in trysts with his Moroccan boyfriend Bilal.

Notes

Dialogue is in French and Arabic, with English subtitles in the United States.

Though the film's initial release was in December 2004, its regular release in the U.S. wasn't until mid-July 2006, when it opened at the Paris Theatre in Manhattan.

Quotes

Bilal (addressing Sami): "You're too indecisive, but I guess that's normal. You're half Moroccan, half French, half man, half woman. It must be difficult knowing who you are."

Cast

• Catherine Deneuve — Cécile
• Gérard Depardieu — Antoine
• Gilbert Melki — Nathan
• Malik Zidi — Sami
• Lubna Azabal — Nadia/Aicha
• Nadem Rachati — Bilal
• Tanya Lopert — Rachel

References & External Links

• Holden, Stephen. (2006, July 14). A Decades-Long Love, Reunited But Unrequited. The New York Times, p. B8
• Amazon

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Times (film) Changing Times (film)

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