Things To Come
Director: Mia Hanson- Love
By Alex Watson
Mia Hanson-Love through her pictures Father of My Children, Goodbye First Love and Eden has emerged as one of the prominent talents of European cinema. Her new film Things To Come continues this trend as through a wonderful turn, Isabelle Huppert combined with Hanson-Love are able to effective portray a woman at the crossroads of life. Winner of Silver Bear for Best Director at this year's Berlin Film Festival, this confirms Hanson-Love's rising status.
Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a respected philosophy lecturer who has been married to her husband Heinz (Andre Marcon) for over 25 years. This summer will bring about big changes as Heinz leaves her for a younger woman and her mentally ill mother Yvette (Edith Scob) shows signs of deterioration. Unsure what lies before her, Nathalie finds herself crossing paths with her former student Fabien (Roman Kolinka who represents all that Nathalie has long left behind.
From the outset of Things To Come, Hanson-Love is able to demonstrate Nathalie's frustrations with having to contend with the world which is becoming younger and has more ideals. This character has an air of superiority which has begun to strain her marriage- when Heinz announces he is leaving her reaction is one that is more irritated than devastated. A respected figure in her field, she is perturbed when the young marketing whiz's at her publishing house want to give her long-running textbook a new redesign to appeal to a younger generation, the colour design instantly has her disdain "It looks like an ad for M&M's" she says. The text remains untouched, but even the slightest alteration is like an assault on her beloved text. Her needy mother has also become a constant thorn in her back and almost daily there is a drama and they have to resort to calling the fire department when she yet again claims her life is in danger.
The arrival of Fabien shows the vulnerability and perhaps hidden love of Nathalie. Her favourite former student, this man is passionate about the ideals that his teacher bestowed upon him and she admires him greatly. He has now begun experimenting with anarchism, but when he grows bored of living the life he decamps to a farm in mountains. Her husband and children are not so convinced of this man "the audience is left to wonder exactly who genuine his commitment to ideas are? Nathalie seems to adore him because he is living the life she abandoned decades ago. Some potentially risky red herrings appear during the film's third act when Nathalie finds copies of such texts as 'The Unabomber's Manifesto' leading to some serious question about his character?
How to reinvent herself is the big question present in Things To Come, Hanson-Love shows Nathalie as a woman whose persona has become outdated and she must now contend with her hard questions. One scene sees her fending off a creepy pervert during a Juliette Binoche film. At times the film does become wayward, in particular, the overly long subplot about what to do her with her mother's plump cat Pandora? Though overall this is a realistic depiction of what happens when we must pick up the pieces in life? How do you contend with having everything slip away and avoid being disillusioned? One very accurate summation comes from when Nathalie meets with a priest who advises her that doubt and questioning have become her life. The audience's own assessment will depend on what they see.
Isabelle Huppert is the perfect star to anchor this picture and through a composed yet passionate turn, she is electric on screen. A proud woman, Nathalie is a woman now struggling to tread water in her new situation and she doesn't know which way to turn? A real legend of French cinema, Huppert perfectly embodies each of this character's flaws. Roman Kolinka is also strong as the idealistic Fabien and wonderfully gives his an air of ambiguity. Does he really believe all the various teaching he continually speaks of or does he just like believing his smart than your average? During the film's third act Kolinka himself excellently convey's Fabien's growing struggle for his own identity.
Things To Come is one of the stronger pieces of French cinema we will see during 2016 and Mia Hanson-Love is now one of strongest directors emerging from Europe.
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