When Fall is Coming

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 a culinary accident soon undercuts whatever trust remains. With the help of her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), whose son (Pierre Lottin) has recently been released from prison, Michelle plots a path towards restoring the family life so long denied her. With a deceptively placid surface, master stylist François Ozon cooks up a twisting and destabilizing thriller where family ties remain the most mysterious ingredient of all.

“An elegant, slippery game of tonal bait-and-switch ... Slides from ambling character study to cool-blooded thriller in the spirit of Simenon ... Hélène Vincent has rarely had a film built quite so devotedly around her presence.” - Guy Lodge, Variety

“With a terrific lead from screen and stage veteran Hélène Vincent, this is Ozon in his fine-wine register … This film’s dramatizing of late-life content, sorrow and solitude is as subversive in its way as anything Ozon has done, and a tartly intelligent rejoinder to the clichés of screen ageism.” - Jonathan Romney, Screen

“A Darkly Funny French Drama Worth Savoring ... A rock-solid demonstration of [Ozon's] control over storytelling, technique and ability to get the best from actors.” - Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter