WHEN FALL IS COMING (Quand Vient L'Automne)

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Storyline (warning: spoilers)

Set mostly in Burgundy, with occasional narrative jaunts to Paris, When Fall is Coming is a slow burn, a film that never delivers twists or shocks, but instead articulates the grinding dysfunction of a fairly ordinary family, gradually revealing one woman’s attempt to bring the generational trauma to an end. We meet Michelle (Hélène Vincent) as she is preparing for a visit from her surly, manipulative daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) and her beloved grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos). Michelle goes mushroom gathering with her best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko) and cooks the fungi for lunch, but a poisonous one eludes Michelle’s notice. Valérie is poisoned and rushed to the hospital, and she resolves that her mother will never see Lucas again.
Much of the rest of When Fall is Coming centers around Michelle’s efforts to repair the damage to her family. Or, perhaps Michelle is plotting to remove the impediments to her happiness. Ozon, to his credit, never telegraphs to the viewer exactly what is bubbling underneath the surface of Michelle’s demeanor of tenderness and concern. But the film does not engage in misdirection, either. Rather, it allows the past to gradually reveal itself as we learn exactly who Michelle is, why Valérie resents her so much, and why it is so vital to her that her grandson experience nothing but love and security in his life.
When Fall is Coming, as the title suggests, is largely about Michelle getting older — she begins to doubt her memory, wondering if she is approaching senility — and trying to settle accounts in advance of her impending death.
For much of the run time, Ozon lays out two equally plausible scenarios. It’s possible that certain things transpire by complete coincidence. It’s also possible that Michelle, hardened by her hardscrabble youth, is capable of a ruthlessness equal in measure to her fearsome capacity to love.