The invaluable Rendez-Vous With French Cinema returns at Lincoln Center from March 6-16 with scores of terrific films. A highlight for me is When Fall is Coming, the latest from director Francois Ozon, which screens Friday March 7 at 3:30 PM and Sunday March 16 at 5:45 at the Walter Reade Theater.
In Francois Ozon’s exquisite, profoundly moving new film, Michelle (Helene Vincent) is in the autumn of her life. She lives in Burgundy, nearby her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko). Both have shared a checkered past and have made peace with it. They often head into the forest to collect mushrooms, and Michelle is planning dinner for her troubled daughter Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier/Swimming Pool) and her beloved grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos) who is going to spend the week with his grandmother.
But a culinary accident causes an even further rift between mother and daughter and Lucas is not allowed to stay. Meanwhile Michelle is driving Marie-Claude to visit her son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) in prison, and when he is released, Michelle hires him to work weeding her garden and clearing out her garage. All this builds to a mysterious death and Michelle and her grandson forming an unbreakable bond together in her country home. Pierre Lottin is a real standout as the ruffian with a good heart and Ludivine Sagnier is heartbreaking as the unhappy, perpetually angry daughter.
What’s remarkable about this film, aside from the extraordinary performances, is how it slowly gets under your skin, making you care so much about these characters. The movie radiates such warmth and tenderness and also teases you with question marks about the mystery at the center of the film, without derailing you from the true heart and soul of the movie. Sheer perfection.
