Quand vient l'automne

An ordinary film.

There's no wow factor in this movie at all. It's plain and simple, nothing more nothing less. It's straightforward in the way it tells a story and the story itself is nothing deep nor unique. The acting isn't too bad and does make the film a bit more engaging. The main aspect of the movie that carried it entirely is the cinematography, the scenes are beautifully rendered and balanced to create this almost welcoming, engulfing atmosphere. Every scene is a pleasure to the eye and focuses on every little detail to make it as realistic and genuine as possible. Overall a decent film, nothing special.

Most Ozon's films have something theatrical about them; not all of them though and it's not easy to pinpoint what exactly it is that makes them feel this way. However, what is clear, that something makes them charming, character-oriented, very pronounced and beautifully down-to-earth.

The plot is quite simple at the beginning but it twists itself further on and as the whole story unfolds, it becomes more intriguing thus diversifying the genre into more of a thriller or even a detective story. For almost two hours, we are observing lower middle class family members dealing with (or not) with their past (impossible to change) and present problems (Ozon focuses on those this time, and he is being hopeful in a very sweet way). The autumn in the film is a bit sad yet colorful and very beautiful, which is an obvious allegory to a human life. We become more aware of the mistakes of the past, but at the same time we have some more life to live, and we have those significant others that we love and live for. Autumn is the right time to re-establish the values, to accept and to forgive.

"Quand vient l'automne" can be translated as "When fall comes". In this film this can be taken literally as the film has many beautiful images of fall but also figuratively as the film is about two old ladies who are overtaken by their own past.

The film starts with one of the old ladies serving a meal of self-picked mushrooms to her daughter. The daugther becomes very sick but survives. Because the tension between the daughter and mother was already there before the meal the question is, was this an accident or an assassination attempt? This is the beginning of a film full of plot twists.

The mushroom poisoning theme made me think of "Fiorile" (1993, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani).

The film full of plot twists made me think of the earlier Ozon movie "Huit femmes" (2002).

Compared to "Quand vient l'automne" "Huit femmes" is a purely artifical movie. "Quand vient l'automne" is much more naturalistic although not in every respect plausible.

In "Huit femmes" there are only female characters, in "Quand vient l'automne" there are also male characters, but not in a father role. There seem to be only mothers.

"Huit femmes" is a pure "who-donnit", "Quand vient l'automne" is much more of the "why-did he/she do it" nature

"Quand vient l'automne" is entertainment in the first place. It is good entertainment but in my opinion a bit less entertaining as "Huit femmes". This is due to the fact that the film contains a few little flaws. I will mention two of them.

For the first one I return to the accident / assassination question I mentioned in the beginning of this review. At the start of the film memory disorder is suggested as a third possible reason by way of a few "absences" of the main character. This possibility remains up in the air for the rest of the film.

In the second place the character of daughter Valérie is very one dimensional (and very unsympathetic). Valérie is played by Ludivine Sagnier, who can do much better. She proved this for example in (you might guess it) .... "Huit femmes".

Slow and predictable - to the point that I found my eyes closing during some scenes. A film that aims to provoke introspection or reflection should at least offer some meaningful insight. This one felt utterly flat: 2 hours and 9 Euros wasted.

To be fair, I wasn't the only one with this reaction - I saw similar expressions of disinterest in the theater.

The ambiguity of certain characters could have been intriguing, but it was handled carelessly. In some ways, it reminded me of the numbing dullness typical of Bertrand Tavernier's films - highly praised, yet hollow.

Some expressions - from the grandson, the friend's son, the daughter - hint at deeper emotions. But everything is left to the viewer's imagination. And that raises a question: if I'm expected to imagine everything, why go to the cinema at all?

I just watched this movie in Paris, and I was blown away how good is the story and how well written it is. I read that the movie won a couple of awards in San Sebastián festival and I was very curious. The film is a drama with a very dark side but at the same time with plenty of sense of humor all over. The cast is magnificent: all of them play so incredible real. Helene Vincent et Josiane Balasko deserve all the awards without forgetting Pierre Lottin, he's just amazing as the felonious son of hers. Without telling too much, the story depicts a kind of characters very rare to find in any movie. I loved how the movie surprises you with some very unexpected turns. I watched most of the films of Francois Ozon, and this one is probably one of his best works. A must watch!