When Autumn Falls – Film Review
by Hugh Maguire

When Fall Is Coming – Original title: Quand vient l’automne

Réalisation – François Ozon
Scénario – François Ozon, Philippe Piazzo
Casting principal – Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Ludivine Sagnier

It is now all of forty-seven years since folk singer Justin Hayward had a huge hit with the song ‘Forever Autumn.’   ‘My life will be forever autumn…’ he sang, and it certainly seems to be forever autumn in the picture-perfect Burgundian village where this film is set.  A warm glow suffuses the landscape, we can smell the damp from the trees and feel the crackle of leaves underfoot.   It is atmospheric!  Like the surrounding landscape itself two lifelong friends, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) and Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), are also in their autumn years, and living quietly.   They meet almost daily and share food and recipes, as well as foraging visits to the woods, not a bad retirement it seems.   With the emphasis on food and scenes set around a kitchen table, we anticipate a not-untypical, slightly languorous, French domestic drama.   It seems a calm and welcome existence until immediate family intervenes – Michelle has a largely estranged daughter whom we immediately dislike, and the other, Marie-Claude, has a son in prison, for some ‘terrible’ crime which is never made clear.

How they deal with the challenges of their respective offspring is just one of the lines of questioning throughout the film.   The same Michelle and Marie-Claude have a shared and, as it transpires, an eventful past. Their perception of that same past differs – one racked with guilt and the other with a calm acceptance.

Estranged from her daughter, but adoring her grandson, Michelle forages in the woods for mushrooms to create a dream weekend welcome-home meal – for daughter and grandson. As we might anticipate there are poisonous mushrooms and the ensuing sickness further unravels the almost non-existent mother-daughter relationship.  Michelle is determined to retain access to her grandson. Marie-Claude’s by-now-released son appreciates Michelle’s essential goodness and does what he can to help. Whether he does more than was expected we cannot know.  Michelle supports him financially, indeed helps him open a trendy bar, and he keeps an eye out for the grandson.  Is Michelle a sweet little old lady in the woods of Burgundy or essentially a would-be crime boss – we never know.  But we are kept wondering, all the while admiring her resilience and quiet acceptance of life.  If not necessarily a life well lived it is certainly a life that has been accepted as one’s lot.

In a film that touches on the complexities of family challenges, misunderstandings, and frustrated love, there is nonetheless a quietly paced sense of tranquillity.  There is an air of stoicism to the narrative, a quality underlined through the pace of action and the quality of camera work.  It makes for very satisfying viewing indeed.