François Ozon's brush with a mysterious mushroom lunch inspired his new film

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

Halfway around the globe, queer French filmmaker François Ozon was as glued to the trial of mushroom lunch chef Erin Patterson as most Australians.
He has more reason than most, given Ozon's great aunt once accidentally poisoned his family during an unfortunate lunch during which she served up the very wrong fungi. Funnily enough, she didn't eat them either, but thankfully no-one died.
Ozon wasn't present at the fateful meal, but the startling incident and the prospect that his great aunt was intentional with her menu stuck with him. This shocking feast is the spore that has sprouted into his surprisingly wholesome did-she-do-it film, When Fall is Coming.
"I think, perhaps, you might be as perverse as me," Ozon chuckles as we discuss the similarities between his latest film and the Patterson case.
A deeply emotional story that refuses to take the obvious path, When Fall is Coming stars César-nominated actor Hélène Vincent as Michelle.
Living alone in the bucolic surrounds of a blissful Burgundy village that appears permanently autumnal, Michelle loves pottering in her veggie garden and foraging for mushrooms with best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko).
A kind soul, Michelle also takes Marie-Claude's wayward son, Vincent (Pierre Lottin), under her wing after he is released from prison. But encroaching dementia may be clouding her days.
Michelle's vagueness could possibly account for the ill-fated mushroom dish with which she (accidentally?) poisons her irritable daughter, Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier), who is visiting from Paris with Michelle's adored grandson, Lucas (Garlan Erlos).
After the incident, Valérie forbids her mum from seeing Lucas, sparking a depressive spiral in Michelle that sets in motion yet more (possibly) murderous intrigue.
Ozon wanted Michelle to feel real. "In cinema, we are so used to seeing young people all the time, but when you follow the life of an older woman, for me, it's fascinating," he says.
"She's close to nature and happy with the rhythm of her life, until it's no longer possible to see her grandson."
Casting Vincent was integral. "She is 80 years old and beautiful," Ozon says.
"Her face is like a landscape on which you can see her expressions. It was very political, for me, to have an actress who has no plastic surgery, with so much societal pressure for women to stay young all the time."
When Fall is Coming takes unexpected paths, weaving doubt around Michelle's actions.
"I love ambiguity and contrast, when things are not black or white," Ozon says.
"When the facts give you the opportunity to ask yourself a question, 'What would I do in this situation?' And in the case of this film, I love the idea that we don't have all the keys to the story. It's a puzzle."
Just like life, Ozon suggests.
"You are not a god," he says.
"You don't see everything. And for Michelle, you know, there are things she wants to see, yes, and there are things she prefers to hide."
The film opens with a telling scene in which a church-attending Michelle listens to a sermon about Mary Magdalene, whose story has become increasingly complicated, with evidence that the church manipulated her depiction as a sex worker.
"I love the character of Mary Magdalene in the Bible" Ozon says. "She gives so much love, and she's forgiven. I think this idea is beautiful, and it goes against the puritanism you can find in many Catholic movements."
Ozon was raised in the church. "What's always surprised me about the ideology of guilt and forgiveness is that, as a child, you realise you can make a lot of sins," he laughs again.
"If you say, 'Forgive me,' then you will go to heaven. So I said to myself, as a child, 'So I can kill people?' Maybe Michelle is as naive as I was?"
Ozon adores the idea that how we interpret Michelle's actions says more about ourselves than it does about him.
Like When Fall is Coming, Ozon's previous films are full of incredible women. Both Vincent and Balasko (and Lottin) appear in By the Grace of God, (2018), his excoriation of child abuse within the Catholic church.
Sagnier made waves alongside Charlotte Rampling in his dangerously seductive Swimming Pool (2003), popped up in musical murder mystery 8 Women (2002) with Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, and appears in Ozon's polyamorous romp Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000).
A trusted ensemble is vital to Ozon's craft. "You have to understand your actors and to love them," he says.
"That doesn't mean you have sex with them, but this close relationship helps them give the emotions we need for the film."
This emotional truth aided the cast in approaching the knotty ramblings of When Fall Is Coming.
"For me, it's a film about the unconscious," Ozon says. "Sometimes there are things you want in your dreams, and it happens. Life helps you to have what you desire."
What Ozon desires most, right now, is for Patterson to see When Fall is Coming, he says with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
"Perhaps she could review it for a newspaper?"
When Fall is Coming is in Australian cinemas now.