TBT: Time Regained (1999)

Sometimes when I get obsessed with one particular costume from a movie, I actually do track down the film and force myself to watch it. The results aren’t always great — maybe that was the only great costume in the flick! Or maybe, as in this case, the film is nearly three hours of a French ramble in and out of World War I. But I stuck with Marcel Proust’s Time Regained aka Le Temps Retrouvé (1999) because there was more than one fabulous costume, even though I couldn’t accurately summarize the contents of the movie.

I haven’t read the Proust novel(s) the film is based on, so I’m probably missing out. But the gist of it is that the narrator Marcel (yes, as in the writer) is on his deathbed and looking back at his life. The entire movie is one flashback filled with seemingly endless flashbacks within that as Marcel remembers different things.

Suffice it to say, this is not liner storytelling, although I do get what the film is trying to do — it’s conveying, rather literally, how memory works. You hear a sound or smell a flower or touch a book, and you remember another moment in time that may or may not have an obvious connection to that sound / smell / touch. You can look at an older person and see them as they were as a young person when you first met. Memory is like that, and this movie tries to put all this onscreen. It’s beautiful, it’s evocative, and it’s really hard to follow, especially if you’re reading subtitles. This is a sit back and let the art wash over you moment.

I’m going to focus on the costumes here, because I couldn’t keep all the characters’ names and relationships straight (so many of them were having affairs with each other!). The timeline is hard to keep organized too. At the end, Marcel says he’s 63. The real Proust died when he was 51 in 1922. The main book this movie’s based on was published after his death in 1927, but it was started around 1913. You could say the narrator is basically Proust with a lifetime of around 1871 to 1922-ish, though I might peg the narrator’s birthdate a little earlier based on the earliest flashback costumes we see.

With that in mind, I’ll go through the movie’s costumes by fashion chronology not by when or where they show up in the film. As designed by Caroline de Vivaise and Gabriella Pescucci, the pieces are exquisite and amazing to look at, even if you can’t tell who’s who.

 

 

Marcel’s Childhood – Meeting Odette

The young boy Marcel first meets Odette (Catherine Deneuve), who is his uncle’s mistress. She’ll become a major figure throughout his life, he has several important conversations with her, and he falls in love with her daughter Gilberte. Odette is wearing a bustle gown that’s probably 1870s or 1880s, hard to tell because she’s seated during the scene. The main difference is the size and shape of the bustle — early 1880s gowns tend to have a narrow shape called the “natural form” while 1870s is fuller in the back.

Here’s some day dresses from the earlier period for reference:

 

 

Marcel’s Childhood – Storytime With Mother

Taking a book down from a library brings back a memory of his mother reading a bedtime story to Marcel. His mother is wearing an 1880s gown, which seems likely because of the narrow bustle. It’s hard to tell if he’s the same age as in the flashback of meeting Odette; Marcel’s certainly close in age.

 

 

Marcel’s Young Adulthood – At the Beach

There are several flashbacks to this period, which seems to be around the 1900s. Marcel is probably 19 or 20 years old, and he’s visiting the seaside with his grandmother and her friends (or maybe they’re relatives?). Everyone’s dressed in pale colors, and the scenes are filmed in a yellowy tone to add to the vintage effect.

Both older women’s outfits are typical of late 1900s summer wear, and there’s many extant examples like this.

Marcel also meets Baron de Charlus (John Malkovich) at the seaside, and Charlus both gives him advice and harasses him. The baron is a recurring character in the film, but like all the men, his costumes are standard suits or formal wear so uninteresting for me to talk about. This linen duster coat rates a tiny mention!

In the very last scene of the film, as Marcel dies, he imagines going back to this point in time and watches his young self on the beach.

 

 

Marcel & Gilberte – Daytime

There’s a flashback of Marcel and Gilberte (Emmanuelle Béart) meeting as children, and that melds into them as adults here, before World War I starts, so 1910s.

Marcel and Gilberte continue to talk / argue, and that gives a full view of her dress. The black trim keeps it from being sickly sweet — and this hints at her true character. She’s not as sweet as she looks.

The shape of this earliest dress she wears is a pretty clear 1910s style with that pigeon-breast front just starting to go away.

Marcel goofs around as they take a photo with these people, most of whom I don’t think show up again (though I think the guy with the monocle will marry Gilberte).

In another scene, Marcel and Gilberte have tea and talk, and she wears another lovely pale 1910s dress. They were sitting most of the time so it was hard to screencap.

Marcel is jealous of Gilberte’s past affair with a woman, Léa (Laetitia Colom-Vialazeix), who apparently cross-dressed.

They walk through town and get caught in the rain. Gilberte is wearing a pale green coat and a hat with excellent ribbons.

There could be more hats in this movie. But then, there aren’t many daytime outdoor scenes, so it’s not like they’re ignoring hats, they just don’t have the correct chance to wear them, darnit. At least the very few look right.

 

 

Marcel & Albertine – Daytime

Albertine (Chiara Mastroianni) is described as Marcel’s “ex-fiancée” but she only has one significant scene in the film. While she plays piano, he talks about music and literature, including an extended discussion of Thomas Hardy (which I appreciated!), but she doesn’t understand. Maybe that’s why they’re exes?

This was really a peak pretty blouse era — there were oodles of styles, and women could find tons of patterns to make their own.

 

 

Madame Verdurin – Daytime

This is a random scene, pre-war, among people who are (correctly) suspecting each other of having affairs. I had an extra hard time keeping track of which one Madame Verdurin (Marie-France Pisier) is because she mostly shows up in evening clothes and looks very different. According to the plot outline, this is supposed to be her, but your guess is as good as mine.

There’s not a lot of women’s daywear in this film so I’m taking what I can get. I like the little buttons down the front. Reminds me of dresses like these:

 

 

Rachel’s Comedie Francaise Costume

OK, here comes the costume that made me seek out this movie! It’s fucking amazing, I love it, 10 out of 10, no notes!

Except the two scenes it shows up in are weird because first, this is supposedly a stage costume, which Rachel (Elsa Zylberstein) is wearing backstage, and then Gilberte wears it to show to Robert, her husband, who’s having an affair with Rachel. None of this is clear in the film, btw, I figured it out from Wikipedia, especially this chart. In the second scene, Rachel and Gilberte’s faces flash back and forth. This is around 1912-13 because Robert and Marcel are discussing war in the Balkans.

The film makes slow pan over an illustration of the costume that’s kind of a fashion plate / theater promo card thing. It reminds me of the Gazette du Bon Ton illustrations of the period.

Then Gilberte enters wearing the dress, very dramatically walking down a staircase towards her husband.

It’s a cool scene, effective, weird, doesn’t make any sense, but it looks great!

Here’s the dress on display (click for larger versions):

I can imagine so many things in the era inspired this costume! Paul Poiret’s designs for sure, but there’s also plenty of draped, asymmetrical evening gowns in brilliant red. Just take a look:

A couple gowns:

 

 

1910s Evening Wear

A lot of the scenes in Time Regained take place during dinner parties, salons, and concerts, and other evening events, and everyone’s wearing generally the same period and style of clothing. The men are in white tie and the women are wearing fancy gowns that seem to be late 1900s to early 1910s. These gowns are long and sleek, often with a lot of filmy draperies and tons of beading. They’re definitely NOT wearing the fuller “war crinoline” style. More like this shape:

But NOT like this shape:

World War I itself lasted from 1914 to 1918, and Paris, long the center and leader of world fashion, was practically shut down by September 1914. Couture houses closed, fashion shows were canceled, and fabrics were soon in short supply.

What I think this movie shows is how high society was calcified, stuck in place, wearing their pre-war finery, and pretending everything is still just fine. Many of the characters are old guard, conservative, only concerned with their own affairs (literally), and they mostly ignore the war. Thus so do their clothes.

 

 

A Dinner Party

Marcel remembers a dinner at which he’s bored with and critical of everyone, and I have no idea if this is before or during the war. But I liked the ladies’ headgear.

This film makes excellent use of stripped-down feathers to put in period aigrette hair ornaments.

Not just feathers though.

Crescent moons were certainly found tucked into 1910s hair.

 

 

The Never-Ending Wartime Party

This is the first big scene in the movie, other than Marcel’s deathbed. It’s GORGEOUS, very sparkly and pretty! That’s why I was sucked in, even before seeing the dress I’d been intrigued by (which is maybe a third of the way in). There are multiple flashbacks to this party sprinkled throughout the movie, after the start of the film, and at first, I couldn’t tell if it was multiple parties or one party, much the less when this party took place. You’ll see why it’s definitely wartime in the scrolldown.

Odette is a main figure here, along with, I think, Madame Verdurin. Both wear gorgeous sparkly gowns, and their hair is styled perfectly.

For comparison, take a look at these fashion plates with similar gown shapes.

Same styles, just add bling.

Both women have beautifully set period hair. I adore Verdurin’s (?) heart-shaped style with a little tiara almost hidden inside it.

Her style looks like the wide-set style on the upper left of this fashion plate:

In the back of Odette’s hair, she has a diamond band or comb tucked in above her rolled hair.

It’s similar to this hairstyling diagram, showing gently waved hair brushed back and coiled low at the neck with a comb.

Verdurin (?) wears this tunic-y dress with a diamond pattern of sequins.

This is the dress on display:

Another scene later in the film, but at the same party, shows the color of her dress better. You can tell it’s the same dress because of the decoration pattern. She’s also wearing the same jewelry and hair and carrying the same large red feather fan.

As much of a full-length screencap I could get, this shows the satin band and underskirt.

All the guests at this party are also dressed wonderfully. This random woman is wearing all the bling!

Her gown is another 1910s style, much like this extant one in shape:

There’s Rachel wearing another red dress, as she performs some kind of recital that Marcel is bored by. Hey, she’s an actress, she likes to stand out!

Rachel does like her red gowns. Well, she has lots of historical precedent, such as:

And also this:

A couturier shows Madame his sketches of new dress designs inspired by the war. These are the most amazingly bizarre things, I wondered if the scene was inspired by something in reality, but I couldn’t find anything. The shapes look like 1910s fashion plates, even something by Paul Poiret, but the specifics using military uniform pieces and shell casings, that seems unique to the film.

After showing the sketches, models wearing the designs appear at the party. They don’t so much walk through the event as they move around the party-goers like they’re on a conveyor belt, all but ignored by everyone. Because these people barely notice the war, even as a novelty.

There weren’t a ton of military-inspired fashions in this period, but here’s one suit with similar buttons and braid:

This next one’s very literal with a military helmet, jacket, and gloves, plus shell casings on the belt. The model is also wearing pants, a rarity at this time.

Women working in factories during World War I did wear pants, but they were far more utilitarian than these sleek, silky ones. This is more like the era’s haute couture PJ pants…

And this airplane-inspired dress with a sort of vaguely camouflage style graphics (interesting that the French invented the modern idea of wartime camo, btw) — is that dress shape a reference to the robe de style, which would be fashionable in the next decade?

Here’s the dress type I’m talking about — these wide evening dresses won’t be fashionable until after the war.

 

 

Wartime Funerals

The only way World War I seems to affect the film’s characters are that a few people they know do die, although it’s not even clear that all of these deaths are war-related (I think one is old age or accident?). The ladies turn out in elegant black hats and veils.

 

 

Post-War Party

After the war, everyone’s fortunes have changed for better or worse. Everyone’s old, but Marcel doesn’t always see it, as I noted above. Oriane de Guermantes (Edith Scob) catches him up on all the gossip while she wears a fringed head necklace and gobs of jewelry.

One guy has brought the American Madame de Farcy (Arielle Dombasle) along, and she’s wearing a slightly outrageous but still of the period headdress. Y’know us Americans, we always gotta stand out!

If an Italian countess can wear giant feathers sticking out from her head, this annoying American can wear wheat grass.

I didn’t get a screencap of her older self, but Marcel first sees Madame Verdurin (now Princess de Guermantes) as aged and then reverts to seeing her as she once looked. Even as an old woman, and with an upgraded marriage, she’s still wearing the same pre-war fashions.

Her dress is still 1910s, before the war, even if she’s richer and better connected now.

Then there’s unchanging Odette, who’s dress is a little more covered up and demure, but still elegant. She may be on the outs with society, but she doesn’t look it.

 

 

There’s lot of great costumes in Time Regained (1999), even if the story makes little sense. Think you’d give this movie a try?

 

 

 

 

Find this frock flick at: