When Fall Is Coming
Michelle Giraud (Hélène Vincent, "By the Grace of God") is looking forward to her grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos; Paul Beaurepaire, "The Crime Is Mine," at 18) spending his summer vacation with her in the small town she's retired to in Burgundy, but a simple question about her daughter Valérie's (Ludivine Sagnier, "Swimming Pool") mode of transport from Paris reveals unbridled hostility. Things don't improve upon their arrival and when Valérie is severely sickened by poisonous mushrooms her mother serves at lunch, she refuses to allow Lucas to stay with his grandmother, upsetting them both. The present is further compromised by associations from the past when Michelle's best friend Marie-Claude's (Josiane Balasko, "The Hedgehog") adult son Vincent (Pierre Lottin, "The Night of the 12th"), just recently released from prison, travels to Paris to plead Michelle's case "When Fall Is Coming."
Laura's Review: B+
Perhaps the most prolific of French filmmakers, cowriter (with his "Everything Is Fine" and "Double Lover" collaborator Philippe Piazzo)/director François Ozon ("Swimming Pool," "Sumer of '85") serves up one of his most compelling mysteries complicated by the dynamics of friends and family. Luminous octogenarian Hélène Vincent compels as the sympathetic but potentially guilty Michelle, supported with equally riveting and ambiguous performances from Balasko and Lottin, only Sagnier parading her emotions unequivocally.
We first meet Michelle as she attends a Sunday service, a sermon focusing on Mary Magdalene hinting at the past that has so distressed her daughter
while also pointing towards the loving care shown towards her best friend. That is our second experience with Michelle as she drives Marie-Claude to a doctor's appointment for what we surmise is likely cancer. The two go mushroom picking in the woods (after "Misericordia," the second 2025 film to feature this very French activity), Michelle returning to her kitchen to sauté them with garlic.
When Valérie arrives, Michelle opens her arms to her grandson, but her daughter is icy. Michelle announces she's just made lunch, an invite she'd extended on the phone, but her daughter says they've just had sandwiches. Lucas replies he is hungry. Oddly, though, it is only Valérie who eats those mushrooms, their aroma coaxing her briefly out of her foul mood, but when Michelle and Lucas take a leisurely walk, they return to police and an ambulance at her front door about to rush Valérie to the emergency room. 'I can't trust you anymore,' Valérie announces back at the house, grabbing Lucas to return to the Parisian apartment given to her by none other than Michelle.
Bereft, Michelle grieves her loss with Marie-Claude, who also questions her own parental aptitude given her only son's jail term. The two will celebrate his release with a fancy meal, the more well-off Michelle treating them all, then offering Vincent a job chopping wood and cleaning up her garden, clearly transferring what she was prepared to lavish on Lucas on her friend's son. Pierre Lottin keeps us off balance as to where his loyalties lie as the two appear to grow close, especially as Michelle confides the financial benefits her daughter stands to gain, but we'll melt when we see him playing with the toys meant for Lucas which Michelle has demanded he get rid of. When he travels to Paris, his intent appears genuine, but by the time he gets home far more serious questions arise.
Ozon has dabbled in Hitchcockian themes before and this twisty tale is laden with guilt which Ozon personifies as Valérie in his film's second half. The two best friends will reveal secrets to each other that verge on betrayals, yet their bond is too strong to be severed, Vincent and
Balasko both as comfortable together as an old pair of shoes while sometimes nipping like new ones. Ozon casts so much doubt that even the friendship which forms between Vincent and Lucas subtly suggests something sinister, something which we shake off by the film's moving conclusion which, once again, finds his characters walking in the woods. "When Fall Is Coming" is one of Ozon's finest, a mystery driven by the foibles of human nature and subconscious desires.
Robin's Review: B
Michelle (Helene Vincent) prepares for a visit by her daughter and adored grandson, picking wild mushrooms for a special meal. But, she makes a mistake and Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier) falls ill. The mistake will further estrange them and threatens her long-anticipated visit with Lucas (Garlan Erlos) in “When Fall Is Coming.”
Director and co-writer Francois Ozone (with Philippe Piazo) creates a very different family film with Michelle put into turmoil when she accidentally poisons her daughter. Then, we learn that she has a past and is called into police headquarters for questioning – was it an accident or intentional. No matter what, it also means no visit with her grandson, something she has looked forward to for a long time.
Valerie, from the moment we meet her, is outwardly hostile toward her mother and demands that Michelle sign over her house to her so Valerie can “save on taxes when you die.” The reason Valerie acts this way is slowly parsed out to the viewer. I will leave it at that. To say more would spoil things.
Ozone has the ability to take seemingly normal life experiences and twists them a bit to make that “normal” story not so. Michelle lives her retiree’s life in Burgundy, driving her little car and giving her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko) a ride to the nearby prison to visit her son Vincent (Pierre Lottin). All the while, she is eagerly looking forward to having Lucas all to herself. Then, the mushroom mistake happens and her life is thrown upside down.
There is wonderful chemistry between Helene Vincent’s Michelle and Balasko’s Marie-Claude, two old and dear friends who both have a questionable past. When we learn of that past, it (kind of) explains Valerie’s blatant hostility toward her mother. Michelle has bent over backwards for years to help her daughter and grandson – including giving her a Paris apartment, gratis. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. The love that Michelle feels for Lucas is palpable with her pain showing when denied the boy’s company.
Francois Ozone shows, once again, his deft ability behind the camera as he puts his talented actors through their paces to elicit fine performances. Plus, there is location, location, location as the Burgundy landscape proves an idyllic setting – it even includes a swan.
Music Box Films released "When Fall Is Coming" in NYC on 4/4/25. Click here for theaters and playdates. It will be available digitally on 6/13/25.
