L'avenir (2016)

A philosophy teacher soldiers through the death of her mother, getting fired from her job, and dealing with a husband who is cheating on her.

Director:

Mia Hansen-Løve (as Mia Hansen Love)

Writer:

Mia Hansen-Løve (screenplay)

Stars:

Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka

8 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Isabelle Huppert	...	Nathalie Chazeaux
André Marcon	...	Heinz
Roman Kolinka	...	Fabien
Edith Scob	...	Yvette Lavastre
Sarah Le Picard	...	Chloé
Solal Forte	...	Johann
Elise Lhomeau	...	Elsa
Lionel Dray	...	Hugo (as Lionel Dray-Rabotnik)
Grégoire Montana	...	Simon (élève lycée) (as Grégoire Montana-Haroche)
Lina Benzerti	...	Antonia
Guy-Patrick Sainderichin	...	L'éditeur
Yves Heck	...	Daniel
Rachel Arditi	...	Amélie
Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet	...	La chef de rayon aux Editions Cartet
Larissa Guist	...	Ruth

Storyline

Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie's husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.

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Plot Keywords:

philosophy teacher | triple f rated | reference to slavoj zizek | strong female character | strong female lead | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief language and drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Les Films du Losange [France] Official Facebook [UK]

Country:

France Germany

Language:

French English German

Release Date:

6 April 2016 (France)

Also Known As:

El porvenir

Filming Locations:

Île-de-France, France

Box Office

Budget:

$2,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$33,090, 2 December 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$282,382, 6 January 2017

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$282,382, 8 January 2017

Company Credits

Production Co:

CG Cinéma, Detailfilm, Arte France Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As Mia Hansen-Løve was basing the film on her mother's life she asked her mother to approve the script before she began filming. The one thing her mother had her change was the name of the cat. In the original script it was called Desdemona, after the cat it was based on, but her mother had her change it to Pandora to respect the cat's privacy.

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Goofs

Nathalie is shown walking through the mud flats exposed along the beach at low tide. As she walks, she is clearly following footprints. Since the mud was previously underwater, the footprints must be from a previous take of Isabelle Huppert walking along the same path.

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Quotes

Nathalie Chazeaux: All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

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Connections

Features Certified Copy (2010)

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Soundtracks

Deep Peace
Written by Donovan and Jake Walton
Performed by Donovan

User Reviews

Things to Come

"Things to Come" is centered around Nathalie, a philosophy teacher, and while the film does touch on philosophical elements, the focus is on Nathalie's personal life and her own fears and thoughts about her slowly disintegrating personal relationships.

She has her husband Heinz, two children, a mother on the verge of death who constantly needs her attention, and a previous student that she now has a sort of mother-son relationship with. The film starts with Nathalie, Heinz, and their children visiting a grave of a French author, and then cuts to several years later when Nathalie is called by her dying mother because she is "having a panic attack", although it seems she's done this before and simply wants to force her daughter to give her company. Soon after she is confronted by young protesters on the way to work. They are angry about something having to do with their future retirement. From the start, this film shows that it is about a fear of the future: fear of death, fear of loneliness, fear of old age.

Soon it is revealed that Heinz is having an affair, and he is told by his children that he must choose between her and his wife. He tells his wife that he chose the other woman. She desperately addressed the news with "I thought you would love me forever".

From here, she begins to realize her aging is happening faster than she has realized as her personal relationships and desires begin to fade away slowly and subtly until she is left with nothing but a cat, until she finally accepts her aging and lets go of that as well. The character becomes conflicted, and Isabelle Huppert conveys this repressed regret and fear perfectly. She doesn't want to care about her husband's affair, and she wants to be satisfied with what she has accomplished, but her dreams of the future seem to be destroyed, as each of those she loves begins to let her down. She even tries to fill the whole left by her husband through another relationship, but she no longer has the will or desire. In a great shot, the screen fades to black as she opens the blinds, showing the reality of her loneliness. She begins to lose hope.

Her mother's death marks the disappearance of the one person in her life who still needed her. Her mother's life was revealed to be full of suffering and lost love, but Nathalie was the one thing in her life that she could be proud of, and now Nathalie has taken her place.

As extreme as this sounds in my description, the film itself is very subtle, and relies heavily on Huppert's performance, to great effect.

While "Things to Come" is a solemn, emotional film with themes that are upsetting and relatable for everyone, there is hope in the end. Through the newborn baby, there is hope, potential, and desire, and that is what is important. That is what we need to continue in life, even if the reality doesn't live up to the desire.