Few filmmakers have put COVID in its place. If they address it at all, it’s in the past tense, an anomaly best forgotten. Or it’s a device, a genre gimmick. Few look frankly at this period of stasis and uncertainty. Maybe they think there’s just nothing there. Olivier Assayas proves them wrong.
Mr. Assayas is one of Europe’s most prolific auteurs with over three dozen films to his directorial credit. He has brought us Maggie Cheung in a catsuit in Irma Vep (1996), corporate techno-terror in Demonlover (2002), and existential identity theft in Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016). Now he brings us a meditation on isolation and destiny with the new film Suspended Time.
Mr. Assayas calls this an “autobiographical comedy.” Two brothers, Paul (Vincent Macaigne) and Etienne (Micha Lescot), retreat with their respective partners — Morganne (Nine D’Urso) and Carole (Nora Hamzawi) — to their parents’ country estate to wait out the pandemic.
The brothers are temperamentally different. Paul is neurotic, Etienne is laissez-faire. One guesses they represent sides of Assayas’ personality and ambivalence about events. Paul, a filmmaker, obsessively disinfects and frets for his livelihood. After all, filmmaking is an art form that relies on social interaction, yet he acknowledges that “movie theaters and film sets are potential clusters.” Etienne, a music journalist, plies his trade online via FaceTime and Zoom.
Suspended Time is a gabfest (a la Woody Allen, who is the most likely American director to take something like this on). So they talk: what else is there to do? Sure, there’s a tennis court on the brothers’ estate, and their late father’s voluminous library, but one can serve or read only so much.
Paul is given to reminiscing, and many of his memories are of Mr. Assayas.’ (The film tellingly name-drops Kristen Stewart and Quentin Tarantino). Coming into his middle age, Paul has a wealth of past projects and successes to ponder. These are laid out in an impassive voiceover. Paul wonders if his art has become disconnected from nature. He escapes to the woods with his phone to confer with his therapist on FaceTime.
Despite the closeness that comes with quarantine, everybody in Suspended Time gets along well. Protocols and politeness give their days shape. One would expect tension, but besides Paul’s handwringing and Etienne’s single hissy fit, the major conflict is whether a burnt pot will come clean. Suspended Time works with copious charm and fine performances by its principals.
We also can’t watch without remembering our own angst about the situation. Was it the end of the world? Would life ever return to normal? And finally: What is normal and how did we come to define it? As Paul observes, “Saddest of all is realizing nothing will change.” When the KN95 masks finally come off, we, like Paul, yearn for the solitude and solace.
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Suspended Time. Directed by Olivier Assayas. 2024. In French with English Subtitles. From Music Box films. Runtime 105 minutes.