In the spring of 2020, as public life grinds to a halt, filmmaker Paul Berger (Vincent Macaigne) retreats to his childhood home in the Chevreuse Valley. There, he shelters-in-place with his partner Morgane (Nine d’Urso), his brother Etienne (Micha Lescot), and Etienne’s new companion Carole (Nora Hamzawi). The group’s days are filled with quarrels over safety measures, the ethics of isolation, and the conveniences of online consumerism, all of which reopen old tensions within the family circle. At the same time, Paul finds unexpected comfort in the stillness of lockdown, using the pause to rediscover literature, art, and the wooded landscapes that shaped his youth.
Suspended Time suffers from a lack of real direction. It feels a bit like many individual scenes or short stories in a trench coat instead of a fully-formed film at times. In his attempt to make a film that is both modern and “figurative” in the style of some of his favorite painters, director Olivier Assayas foregoes many of the story elements that create true drama. Cinematography is the main focus of this movie, but it’s not enough to support the film alone. Suspended Time is a painting in motion, beautiful images interrupted by petty arguments and classically French bullheadedness. Some people will love this, but others will find it lacking in the drama department. What could have been a focus on the actual situation becomes a chance for the characters to gush about their favorite films, books, and music, which–once again–some people will love and others will hate.
This is less a broad critique of the film and more one of the film industry internationally, but I’m just plain sick of pandemic stories about people who don’t have to worry about anything. They’re safe and isolated and have money or well-paying work that can be done remotely and nothing interesting happens. But for some reason, these are the stories being told by the film industry. What about those scores of essential workers, many of whom fell ill and died or ended up with Long COVID, who were hailed as heroes for a moment before their sacrifices were forgotten, burned upon the altar of “normal”? What about those whose health still isolates them as COVID-19 continues to spread in 2025 or those disabled by their COVID infections who face a similar risk of morbidity? Those are the intriguing pandemic stories, yet everyone with the power and funding to pick up a camera ignores them. There is a cowardice in looking only at privileged existence during 2020, and cowardly filmmaking is banal filmmaking.
While those looking for a pandemic story will be woefully disappointed by the same minimizing tripe that has been coming out since most places lifted mitigations in 2021 or 2022, patrons who enjoy French culture, discussions of art and artistry, and stories about familial conflict may find some enlightening moments in Suspended Time. Recommended.
Why should public and academic libraries consider adding Suspended Time to their collections?
Olivier Assayas’s chamber dramedy captures a distinctly French, early-pandemic mood—restless, reflective, and steeped in talk of art, class, and personal ethics. While the film’s low-stakes confinement and episodic structure won’t satisfy viewers seeking high drama or frontline perspectives, it offers strong appeal for patrons interested in contemporary French cinema, auteur studies, and intimate, character-driven storytelling. For collections serving cinephiles, French-language learners, and arts & culture programs, Suspended Time provides a visually elegant time capsule of lockdown life, anchored by recognizable performers and crafted cinematography.
Can Suspended Time be used in courses on film studies, French culture, or contemporary history?
Yes. The film works well in Film Studies or Auteur Theory modules examining Assayas’s style and in French Studies courses exploring cultural responses to COVID-19 and interpersonal communication. It can also support seminars on Pandemic & Cultural Memory as a counterpoint to frontline narratives prompting discussion about privilege, representation, and what (or who) mainstream cinema chose to depict. Instructors should frame it alongside documentaries or texts on essential workers and Long COVID to surface the limitations and biases of its perspective.