Quand vient l'automne

Renowned French director François Ozon returns with his 24th feature film. This intimate film noir marks a return to a more sober style after 2023’s flamboyant Mon Crime, which relied heavily on irony and artificiality.

In Quand vient l'automne we follow Michelle, who enjoys a peaceful retirement in a Burgundian village, close to her old friend Marie-Claude with whom she picks mushrooms in the forest. When her Parisian daughter Valérie drops off her son Lucas to spend the school holidays with his grandmother, Michelle, stressed by her daughter, serves the apparently poisonous mushrooms for lunch. Valérie falls ill, but recovers quickly and forbids her mother to see her grandson again. Michelle feels lonely and guilty. Until everything changes when Marie-Claude's son is released from prison.

François Ozon previously made Swimming Pool, 8 Femmes and Sous le sable and is known for his preference for putting older actresses at the centre of his films. He is now doing so again with Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko, both of whom have more than a hundred film roles to their name.