When Fall Is Coming

Two people walk along a forest path carrying wicker baskets, with autumn-colored trees surrounding them and a stack of cut logs on one side. The ground is a dirt trail with patches of grass and fallen leaves.

After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her with such contempt and suspicion?

When Valérie drops off her son for a week with his grandmother, Michelle sees an opportunity to repair the relationship, but stressed out by her daughter, accidentally serves her toxic mushrooms for lunch. Valérie quickly recovers, but the culinary accident undercuts whatever trust remains and she forbids her mother from seeing her grandson anymore.

Feeling lonely and guilty, Michelle seeks the help of her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), whose son (Pierre Lottin) has recently been released from prison, and begins plotting a path towards restoring the family life so long denied her. With a deceptively placid surface, master stylist François Ozon cooks up a twisty and destabilizing thriller where family ties remain the most mysterious ingredient of all.

Our annual French Film Festival is supported by Albertine Cinémathèque and presented in collaboration with the Department of Romance Studies.

Albertine Cinémathèque is part of the French For All initiative by Villa Albertine – The French Institute for Culture and Education, and Albertine Foundation, and is made possible with the support from the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC).

Part of our "French Film Festival." In French with English subtitles. Courtesy of Music Box Films.