In the spirit of his cinematic idol, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, French writer-director François Ozon works at a rate of knots and makes sure he punches out at least one film a year. Yet unlike Fassbinder, there’s very little thematic or stylistic continuity between the films, and he never seems to be able to raise the quality above the standard of the admirably decent. They often intriguing and competently made, but these are not works made to set hearts aflame.
When Fall Is Coming is another such confection, a little like the “granny cake” whipped up by its heroine Michelle (Hélène Vincent) as a treat for visitors, dutifully wrapped up in tin foil and intended as a comforting taste of home. Sure, Ozon spikes the recipe with a few more acrid flavours and textures, but in the main this is one that slides down a little too easily, with an overwhelming sweetness that subsumes the other notes.
Michelle is introduced attending a church sermon, then heading home to tend her garden and pick some squashes for a hearty soup. She dresses in shaggy jumpers, denim skirts and big walking boots – a true fixture of the countryside in her quaint little cottage. She picks up her best pal Marie-Claire (Josiane Balasko) in order to drive her to the local jail to visit her son Vincent (Pierre Lottin), and then the pair go mushroom picking ahead of a surprise luncheon for her visiting daughter and grandson.
Family is vital to Michelle’s sense of wellbeing, though daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) is naturally hostile to her doing mother. Grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos) doesn’t really understand from where this hatred stems. Yet the family vacation is short lived, as on day one Michelle accidentally serves up a batch of poisonous mushrooms and nearly kills Valérie (the only one of the three who partakes). Nothing, ultimately, comes from this accident except the expansion of animosities, and Michelle fears that she’ll never get to see Lucas again.
At one point, Michelle is seen nodding off in an easy chair with a Ruth Rendell paperback on her lap, and it offers a little sign as to where things are headed in the film’s second and third acts. Revelations about the past rise to the surface; going all out to help a friend in need often results in others suffering; the ravages of nature and biology tighten their grip.
When Fall Is Coming strays into some interesting, ethically thorny terrain, but Ozon always opts for the easy, often crowd-pleasing solution rather than to have things become too dark or alienating. It’s teeters on the Chabrolian for a time, but lacks the ironic wit and cynical edge of the maestro, settling instead for something that more nakedly audience-placating, and slides down more like a granny cake and less like Michelle’s dodgy mushroom haul.
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