User reviews

I read some reviews wondering about the point of the movie: I think asking for the point is simply insignificant when watching a movie like this. It depicts a portion of a mature woman's life, a philosophy teacher and an intellectually brilliant editor, having to come to terms with loss, abandonment and conscious aging. One would say: nothing new, nothing original, or interesting. On the contrary, I found the picture deeply affecting, in the apparently placid but still very focused and deep way it portray this normal life. It reflects so realistically the natural and typical feminine facing of things as they come, that it gets intrinsically authentic and involving. As usual, Isabelle Huppert does not only interpret but lives her character and is the real pillar of strength of the picture. If you love unpretentious but simply authentic women's stories you'll like this movie, and you won't have to ask where the point is.

Until this movie I never quite got the hype for Mia Hansen-Løve. Her slice-of-life, semi- autobiographical movies seemed forgettable to me. Maybe Hansen-Løve is growing as an artist, or maybe it's just Huppert. Whatever it is, Things to Come, is a movie that's stuck in my mind, a beautiful portrait of a woman whose life is upended just as she is entering the final third of her life.

The great French actress Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie (based on Hansen-Løve's own mother). A successful philosophy professor with two grown children, a fellow philosopher for a husband, and an ailing mother, she is comfortably settled in her life. But as the movie continues on we watch as the things that Nathalie considered so much a part of her, change, dissolve, disintegrate.

I'll admit it, I was actually initially reluctant to watch the movie because the idea of seeing a woman having everything taken away from her seemed almost too sad to bear. And yet Things to Come is a surprisingly joyful movie. Nathalie isn't an automaton, she cries as the things she once counted on as part of her life are no more, but at the same time she picks herself up, dusts herself off and goes on.

Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie a woman reaching middle age with a long time marriage and two grown up children. She teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris and life is good. She also enjoys her former students who seem to nurture her in return for the nurturing she gave them.

Then her husband announces he is having an affair and is leaving her. With the certitude of familiarity now removed and new possibilities blossoming she has to decide if this is a tragedy or a new beginning and what to make of her life.

Now this is just compelling from start to finish all the performances are brilliant. This is one of those films where you feel you are being a voyeur in many respects – it is that well done. The sub stories too are done with such care that they segue seamlessly into the main narrative – rather like the way things do in real life. Huppert is superb (as she always is) Roman Kolinka as Fabien is rather good to and worthy of a mention as he is sort of ambiguous but in a way so contrived that you question whether he actually is.

Anyway, in French a bit of German and the ever present English this is an understated gem that will bring much reward to any who should seek it out – recommended.

As Claude Chabrol said, "Isabelle Huppert makes her own films, the director and everybody else are just there to help". This one is perfectly suited for her restrained style. A woman´s life is changing considerably and she carries on. Simple enough but oh there´s so much more to it. This realistic story-telling makes a short scene of her tearing up in the car more effective than a full house melodrama. A serious, intelligent film with poignant reflections on maturity, idealism and more. The realism holds its logic all the way until the ending.

For someone used to french cinema it isn´t that outstanding but it´s such a serious piece of film-making it stands out among the rest. In my opinion the last section could have been trimmed and I have a couple of petty complaints but overall it´s still a compelling film. A pleasant drama that should easily satisfy anyone who knows what they´re getting into.

Isabelle Huppert is one of French cinema's finest and her name alone is enough to raise expectations of Things to Come (2016). At a glance, the film promises much: a strong storyline, a beautiful setting, an iconic star. The post-divorce adjustment cycle of trauma, grief, renewal and anticipation of new beginnings is full of cinematic potential. Instead, we find an abundance of prolonged silence, empty space and vacant stares: the promise of things to come is never fulfilled.

Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a contented academic intellectual who busies herself in the world of philosophy. Her long marriage is abruptly terminated by her equally intellectual husband who has found a new love, an announcement he makes with as much emotion as ordering home-delivery pizza. Nathalie's response similarly has as much depth as a quibble over pastrami or ham topping and she remains at this level throughout. Then her textbook contract is cancelled because of falling interest in philosophy and her high-maintenance mother passes away. All three triggers offer freedom, but Nathalie stalls in self-despair and victimhood.

She attaches herself to a former student to search for her youth and affection, a hope doomed from the start. Her estranged husband moves on with a full life in contrast to her own aimless search to fill the void that now consumes her. Despite her lofty philosophical grasp on life and frequent quotations from eminent authors, she becomes just another woman who is a victim of a man's decision. The film studies her loneliness with voyeuristic intensity as if her version of abandonment is somehow more enlightened than others, but it is not.

The film is cinematically warm with an intimate style of photography, but the characterisation is shallow. A self-absorbed introvert before the breakup, Nathalie speaks of the joys of new-found freedom but simply cannot act on her new opportunities. If this film was given to a lesser actress than Huppert it would struggle for air. It still does, but it breathes. It stretches patience for a film to hope that empty silence and prolonged focus on inconsequential or motionless detail will be read through the lens of Huppert's past reputation for inspired depth of meaning and emotional intensity.

It may well be that the emptiness of this story is entirely intended. If so, it will be seen by many as a great success. The musical score gives the story some uplift, even hope, but there are limits to what can be achieved with even the most haunting acapella rendition of Unchained Melody or lively Arlo Guthrie singalong. The ambivalent climax and the emotional ambiguity of the film itself is the only lasting memory. AUTHOR: cinemusefilms.com

"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.

Young actors today would do well to watch carefully and learn from this amazing woman. She's been doing it for such a long time, and for each work she is a part of is that much more memorable for what seems like such very subtle reasons. She is just spectacularly comfortable in the life of all the characters she portrays. She is unquestionably one of the finest actors to grace the screen of any age... with an unlimited, timeless grace commanding any story-line she chooses. This is a very emblematic film for her, and it is oh so hard to imagine another actor that would be able to substitute in the part to give it the complexity and depth she is able to impart. It is what makes her so special, and why with every new contact I become more infatuated with her unmatched talent. She's wonderful, unequaled, and timeless.

Greetings again from the darkness. What was once a rarity is now becoming more commonplace … movies made by women about women. This latest from writer/director Mia Hansen-Love (Eden, 2014) features one of the most interesting lead characters from any film this year.

Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy professor, writer, longtime wife to Heinz (Andre Marcon), mother of two grown children, and care-taker to a depressed, slightly-dementia-stricken mother (Edith Scob) who is prone to calling for emergency workers when Nathalie doesn't answer her phone calls. The film offers no murder mystery, alien invasion or other earth-rattling event. Instead it guides us through Nathalie's process in dealing with life things that occur on a daily basis.

The genius of the film, script and character stems from the fact that Nathalie never creates drama where none exists … a rare personality trait these days. Rather than plead for mercy from the universe, she simply plows forward during what would be three personal-world-crumbling events in a lesser movie: her husband cheats and leaves her, her mother dies, and she is fired (or at least forced to move off her method) from the job she loves.

Ms. Huppert delivers yet another stellar performance (see her in this year's Elle) as Nathalie. She is an intellectual and thoughtful woman, but not necessarily the warm and cuddly type. Sure she cares for her family and inspires her students, and rather than lash out at her confessing husband, she only shows frustration when he takes a couple of her beloved books in his move out (or stuffing his flowers in the trash can). Disappointment is more obvious when her prized former-pupil Fabien (Roman Kolinka) is unable to competently debate his radical views with her … choosing instead a condescending, brusque approach designed to shut her down.

Nathalie is more shocked by her publisher's intention to "modernize" her book than by finding "The Unabomber Manifesto" on the shelf at Fabien's commune for intelligent anarchists. The politics of a particular situation has influence on nearly every scene, and Ms. Hansen-Love's script emphasizes the importance of seasoning/experience in handling life … and does a remarkable job contrasting those who have it from those who don't. Few movie soundtracks include both Woody Guthrie and Schubert, but then both fit well when the story avoids a mid-life self-discovery, and instead focuses on the realization of freedom. These are two very different things, and you'd have a difficult time finding a better look than this film offers.

Saw this as a premier of Somerset House summer screen.

This is a classic French film of life, with a little less warmth than say Eric Rohmer. It follows the stately collapse of a middle aged woman's world - as she continues to live on the inertia of continuation. It is well observed, with the attention to detail afforded to films that are not Hollywood inspired. We see relationships change subtly through different status changes. Even the relationship to the philosophy she teaches and thinks she knows.

Isabelle Huppert is always watchable - which is just as well as she is in every frame. The filming and scenery is precise and often beautiful - though it was far too low energy for a premier.

Nathalie Chazeaux (Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy professor although a student strike is challenging the faculty. She is married but her husband reveals his cheating. Worst yet, he has to tell her as he moves out of the house. Her kids are moving on. Her disturbed mother keeps pulling her into her life. Her former student reconnects with her. As each part of her life is severed, she finds life in her new freedom.

This is very french especially how Nathalie reacts to her husband's revelation. It doesn't have to be melodramatic but I would like for more drama. The danger is never that high although there is surely some emotional dangers. Huppert's classy acting keeps the movie compelling. I would like to have her disconnecting happen in the first half hour. Instead, it's dragged over an hour and there isn't enough time for her to find herself. It's the shortest of freedom rides. It's understated. I prefer something more dramatic.

Nathalie Chazeaux (Isabelle Huppert) is a Parisian high-school philosophy teacher in her sixties. She seems to have an ideal family life. Her husband Heinz (André Marcon) also teaches philosophy at the same school and they have a content family life at home with their two young adult children. As the film progresses, life situations becomes less ideal for Nathalie including the mental and physical decline of her high-maintenance mother (Edith Scob).

The film's beginning was fascinating. It included school protests against the current state of France; it also included a disagreement Nathalie has with a pair of marketing experts on how her book, written years ago, should be packaged to sell better. These scenes seemed to promise a critique of our modern times. While those themes more or less dissipated after the beginning, "Things to Come" remains an insightful film at other levels.

Yet again, Huppert raises the film to a higher level with her talent and presence portraying a role with which many in her life situation could identify. She seems strangely cool when given bad news but her humanity (and tears) show more clearly when she is alone.

This coolness is especially apparent in her final scene with Marcon. It is amazing how both seem to be having a casual conversation but there is so much bite and sadness in the subtext beneath their words. This scene is quite remarkable.

Director/writer Mia Hansen-Love presents her fine story free of any flash. Sometimes, this subtlety is welcome but this movie might have used just a little more flash to heighten a few scenes. But with such a fine lead player, Hansen-Love might have found this unnecessary. The bonus is the various philosophical discussions (including talk of the events around the 1968 uprising) which Nathalie has with her husband, her classes at school, and a former prized student who now lives in an anarchist commune in the countryside.

I recommende this fascinating movie of Mia Hansen-Løve inspired in your mother life´s. I question myself why this movie was not in the Cannes? The shot is wonderfull with scenes of everyday life in Paris, in beach trip and mountain refuge (Grenoble).

It´s a short movie (1h30min) which made me like it. Isabelle Huppert have a magnific actuation. However, the main character has 40 years and Huppert more than 60. Ok, this was not a problem. Sometimes the main character was a typical Frances boring, with gesture, expressions and customs that only the French understand. It reminded me a lot of my experiences in France, and that was very good. The final is very intersting followed by The Fleetwoods - Unchained Melody. I conclude that freedom must always be present in our lives, and that freedom and time can solve any problem life´s, as unemployment, love, disappointment, etc. I really liked it. My note is 7/10, but almost 8/10.

R - 7/10

I have to admit I haven't seen any of the other films to have been directed by Mia Hansen-Love but if they are as good as "Things to Come" she will already have made her mark as one of the great directors working today, not that a great deal happens , in the conventional sense of 'cinematic action', in "Things to Come". This is simply a portrait of a woman, (Isabelle Huppert), who has settled into middle-age, neither particularly happy nor particularly unhappy. She is a teacher and writer of philosophy who uses the philosophical treatises she's always lived by to get through her largely uneventful life.

She has a dull, middle-aged husband who also teaches, two grown children and an ageing, ill mother, (Edith Scob from "Eyes Without a Face"), when suddenly her life is thrown into disarray, Nevertheless she copes, mainly due to her friendship with a younger man who was once one of her students, There is a suggestion that they might become romantically involved but it's just a hint in a film full of hints.

This is serious stuff, intellectually rigorous and yet full of humor; a film for intelligent, grown-up audiences who like to take their brains with them when they go to the pictures and Huppert, who is never off the screen, is stunningly good. Every gesture she makes, the way she walks, tells us something about this woman as much as what she says. This is great acting.

Everyone else follows suit. Roman Kolinka as Fabien, the New-Age would-be anarchist she comes to rely on, if only for company, could have been such a cliché but Kolinka brings depth and shadings to the role and makes him likable and interesting. Even Andre Marcon as the dull husband is dull in a way that makes him sympathetic rather than a figure of fun.

By now you might have realized that I loved this film as much as any I've seen this year. Is it a masterpiece? Probably not. In the end it's gossamer thin but it is also a gem, a beautiful uncut diamond of a movie. See it at all costs.

This is the first of the half dozen films Mia Hansen-Love has made that I have seen and I'm impressed. Helped enormously by the powerful and ever convincing central performance of the wonderful Isabelle Huppert, this is a slight but affecting movie. Thoughtful and thought provoking we are introduced to philosophy teacher Huppert who has a deft and loving touch when involved with her pupils and her more conservative and plodding, though not unlikeable, husband. Beautifully shot, the film floats rather than dwells upon the importance or otherwise of philosophy in one's life, the nature of politics and youthful rebellion and with the assuredness of director and lead actress nothing really perturbs even though there are potentially disturbing upsets along the way. There were a couple of instances that made me sit up and were possibly only included to help propel the film forward for in themselves they seemed most unlikely events. There is a stranger who gropes at Huppert in a cinema, follows her wench she changes seats and even onto the street where he kisses her fully against a wall. Does this really happen in Paris? Towards the end both Huppert and husband take it in turns to hold their daughter's new born baby each declaring it looks like them. Surely throughout the world the claim is by the parents that the child looks like the mother and by the mother that it may look like her parents. These two moments seem more vivid and inappropriate because the rest of the film is so placid but possibly their greater significance was lost on me. Very enjoyable little film nonetheless.

Nathalie's vacation model runs through the entire movie. When many people are old, they may regret it because they have no time or no opportunity to enjoy their time. In fact, giving up is not always a bad thing. In one's live, there are always times when we need to give up. Learning to let it go will make us move forward more easily. Give up those who do not want to take away and throw away the things you do not want to remember. Let yourself believe that there will be a broader existence when you move forward. No matter what form the future happens, our life will always continue. The future is now, and it is the most important thing to live well in every moment now.

"Things to Come" (2016 release from France; original title "L'Avenir" (The Future); 100 min.) brings the story of Nathalie, As the movie opens, we see Nathalie and her family visiting the burial site of Chateaubriand at St. Malo in Brittany. We then go to "Some Years Later", and Nathalie and her husband Heinz, both lyceum teachers, are dealing with various student protests against "the reform", much to their irritation. In a parallel story, Nathalie needs to deal with her aging mother, who seemingly calls her every 5 minutes regarding an ailment (real or perceived). At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from French writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve, best known for the excellent "Father of My Children" some years ago. Here she brings to the big screen a seemingly ordinary slice of life about a women in her late fifties, dealing with changes around her: her aging mom, issues at school, issues with her husband, issues with her schoolbook publishing company, etc. etc. No bomb explosions, no special effects, no car chases, just people interacting and living their lives. The first hour of the movie plays out in Paris, and makes day-to-day life in Paris look fantastic: mostly sunny weather, people playing in the park, people enjoying a coffee on a sidewalk terrace, etc. (Having grown up in nearby Belgium, I can assure you that in reality the weather is rarely that nice...) The rests of the movie plays out at the family's summer house in Brittany, and also in the Rhone mountains. But the very best part of the movie is of course to watch Isabelle Huppert in action. In my mind, Huppert is the European Meryl Streeo (they are about the same age), and Huppert seemingly is only getting better as she's getting older (just like Streep). Here Huppert brings the Nathalie character with a vulnerability yet an equal amount of determination. In one of her classes, she asks the students "can the established truth be debated?" Later on, she concludes that "the future is compromised".

"Things to Come" won major acclaim when it premiered at the Berlin film festival last year, and rightfully so. As it happens, Huppert released another film last year, "Elle", that won her even greater acclaim. It's tough when you're competing against yourself. "Things to Come" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati (the same theater where "Elle" is still showing, coincidentally). The Sunday matinée screening where I saw this at was packed, to my surprise. I guess the word is out that basically any film starring Isabelle Huppert is almost certainly a must-see, and that certainly is the case here. "Things to Come" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Isabelle Huppert is her usual fascinating self as a put-upon philosophy teacher stoically coping with a cheating husband, a stalker, a neurotic mother and sundry other horrors.

As a bonus the latter is played by the lovely veteran actress Edith Scob constantly on the phone to inform her of her panic attacks.