Celebrated French auteur François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women, Criminal Lovers) tones down his custom­ary outrageousness for this brilliantly directed, emotionally wrenching story of Romain (Melvil Poupaud), a hot­ shot fashion photographer in the prime of life who must confront his mortality upon learning he has a fatal illness. Stricken not with AIDS, as he first assumes (recalling hedonistic trawls through boy bars and sex clubs), Romain reacts'to the unexpected news with full-throttle intensity, ranging frpm destructive anger to sober resig­nation. Determined to make the most of his remaining days, Romain sets free his devoted lover Sasha, makes peace with his estranged sister and, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, visits his magisterial grand­mother (French cinema's grande dame, Jeanne Moreau) for a heart-to-heart talk. Before shuffling off this mortal coil, Romain enters into a menage a trois with a cafe waitress (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, star of Frameline29's Opening Night film, Côte d'Azur) and her husband, but sex is not all they have in mind, and Romain must make a final decision that completes his circle of life.

As in previous films, Ozon mines potentially melodramatic territory, but this time plays it straight, shunning distanced irony in favor of unfettered feeling and a deep respect for his characters' challenges and choices. Although its tone is wistful and elegiac, the film ends on a note of grace, as Romain finds meaning in gestures of kindness and selflessness, and in slowing down to see not just glimpses of fashion models through a camera lens, but the complicated world in all its imperfection. Resonating with powerful performances, philosophical maturity and a certainje ne sais quais that characterizes the best French films, Time to Leave ele­ vates Ozon to a new plateau.