WHEN FALL IS COMING Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Francois Ozon
Stars: Helene Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Ludivine Sagnier, Garln Erlos, Pierre Lottin, Sophie Guillemin, Malik Zidi, Paul Beaurepaire.
Mushrooms and murder make for a potent mix. We’ve had various takes on this theme in films like Alan Madden’s 1995 black comedy Mushrooms, and several other films. The recent controversial mushroom murder trial that played out in Victoria over the past couple of months garnered media attention and newspaper headlines around the world. And that court case will be in the back of the minds of audiences who visit the cinema to see this sublime and compelling French drama in which mushroom poisoning plays a part. This drama is the latest film from prolific French filmmaker Francois Ozon, and is, arguably his best film for many years.
Michelle (Helene Vincent, from Three Colors Red, etc) lives in rural France. A former prostitute who plied her trade in Paris, the elderly Michelle has retreated to Burgundy where she enjoys the languid pace of life, walking through the nearby woods and picking mushrooms with her close friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko, from The Hedgehog, etc). The two women enjoy the simple pleasures of life in the country.
Michelle dotes on her young grandson Lucas (newcomer Garlan Erlos, in his film debut), whom she rarely sees. Lucas is caught in the middle of the bitter fights between his mother Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier, from the Ridley Scott epic Napoleon, etc) and estranged father Laurent (Malik Zidi, from Ozon’s 2000 drama Water Drops On Burning Rocks, etc). Valerie has never really forgiven Michelle for her past life, which creates tension between the two women.
Valerie brings Lucas to Michelle’s place in the country for a weekend visit. Lucas adores his grandmother and finds her house a place of quiet that allows him to escape the tension of his home in Paris. Michelle cooks a meal for the family to share. The meal is laced with freshly picked mushrooms. Neither Lucas nor Michelle eat the mushrooms, but Valerie does. She soon falls ill and is briefly hospitalised.
She accuses Michelle of having deliberately tried to poison her. Believing that Michelle is unfit to look after Lucas Valerie takes Lucas back to Paris with her,forbidding Michelle from ever seeing Lucas again. Thsi leaves Michelle distraught and upset. Michelle confides her fears in her long time friend Marie-Claude. Marie-Claude’s son Vincent (Pierre Lottin, from The Night Of The 12th, etc) has recently been released from prison, and he overhears Michelle’s fears about Valerie and Lucas. Vincent heads off to Paris to try and plead with Valerie to change her mind. Shortly afterwards, Valerie dies following a fall from her apartment balcony. Was it an accident, suicide, or something more sinister?
Ozon and co-writer and regular collaborator Philippe Piazzo (The Crime Is Mine, etc) are not giving the audience any easy answers here, letting the audience speculate. This subtly nuanced and brilliantly written film is shaped by secrets and lies, guilt, recriminations, family dysfunction and suspicion, and Ozon gives the material a deliberate air of ambiguity. Nothing is simple or clear. His pacing is deliberate, breathing life into the characters. The film is tinged with an air of melancholy and regret. When Fall Is Coming has been gorgeously shot in autumnal colours by cinematographer Jerome Almeras (Human Capital, etc), who captures the rustic beauty of the setting.
A veteran of theatre and film and whose career has spanned some six decades, Vincent is good as Michelle, bringing warmth and resolve to her character. Sagnier tinges her obnoxious, demanding, judgemental and overly critical Valerie with an air of bitterness, and she is clearly an unsympathetic character. Newcomer Erlos is good as Michelle’s curious 10-year-old grandson Lucas. Sophie Guillemin also registers strongly as a detective who entertains niggling doubts about Valerie’s death.
When Fall Is Coming will have audiences still thinking about this provocative and engrossing drama long after they have left the cinema.
★★★★
