Changing Times (Les temps qui changent), directed by André Téchiné, is a French film about unrequited romances. Some thirty years earlier, Antoine Lavau (played by Gérard Depardieu) and Cécile (played by Catherine Deneuve) fell in love, enjoyed each other sexually, but somehow did not marry. Antoine went on to become a successful builder, whereas Cécile’s second husband is a Moroccan Jewish physician, Nathan (played by Gilbert Melki), she lives with him in Tangiers, and they have a son, Sami (played by Malik Zidi). Cécile works as a program announcer/producer at a local radio station. When the film begins, Antoine arrives in Tangiers to supervise the building of a television station that would compete with Al-Jazeera. Cécile and Nathan are at odds, quarrelling, as he evidently has a mistress. Sami, now in his twenties, has also flown to Tangiers with his wife Nadia (played by Lubna Azabal) and her son Said (played by Idir Elomri); Sami’s objective is to carry on sexually with a young Moroccan boy, Bilal (played by Idir Rachati). Arriving without prior notice, Nadia knows Nathan and begs to stay at his house with her son and Sami. Nadia does not feel well, though filmviewers will infer that psychosomatism is suspect, especially when her twin sister Aicha (also played by Lubna Azabal) refuses to see her. Antoine after so many years has decided to rekindle his love with Cécile. Indeed, his goal is an obsession. Cécile, however, is not interested in handling yet another unpredictable man and seeks to dissuade Antoine from seeing her. Then several developments work in Antoine’s favor. Nadia becomes so ill that Sami must take her back to Paris. Nathan decides to move to Casablanca, where he doubtless has a mistress. Antoine, while inspecting the building of the TV studio, is buried by mud in a sudden downpour; he ends up in a coma at a hospital. Meanwhile, Aicha comments to Cécile that Antoine’s love is the most that she has ever experienced in a man. The groundwork is laid for a very happy ending, though amid brief radio coverage of the Iraq war from a Moslem perspective, Moroccans awaiting an opportunity to escape across the Mediterranean to Spain, which is visible on a clear day, poverty and squalor in Tangiers, and women suffering social discrimination because of their gender. MH
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