‘When Fall is Coming' Review: Cooking Up a Mystery
Ozon's efficiency and polished style are among his appeals — his films include 'Under the Sand' and 'Swimming Pool' — and he lays out this movie with silky ease. In precise, illustrative scenes he takes you on the rounds with Michelle, mapping her pleasant environs, charting her routines and introducing her small circle of intimates, including another local, Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), a longtime, charmingly earthy friend. For the most part, the pieces fit together, though a few things seem off. For one, Marie-Claude's son, Vincent (Pierre Lottin), is in jail when the movie opens (though soon out); for another, Michelle's daughter, Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier), is viscerally, inexplicably, hostile to her mother.
Michelle's life and the setup seem so pacific that the movie initially teeters on the soporific; which works as a sneaky bit of misdirection. Because just when everything seems a little too frictionless, someone prepares poisonous mushrooms for lunch, and someone else eats them, a turn that puts you on alert (where you stay). Ozon, who also wrote the script, continues to lightly thicken the plot but also withholds information, and before you know it, this obvious story has become an intrigue. One bad thing leads to another (and another), and the air crackles with menace. Michelle and Valérie argue, Marie-Claude falls seriously ill, Vincent takes a suspicious trip. Yet the more that things happen, the less you know.
Ozon sprinkles the story with hints, summons up the ghost of Claude Chabrol (bonjour!) and, during one vividly hued autumn walk, evokes Grimm's fairy-tale 'Snow-White and Rose-Red,' about two sisters. He also foregrounds doubles: The sisterly Michelle and Marie-Claude don't have partners, and each has a difficult adult kid. Despite their nominal similarities, Valérie and Vincent are notably different; he and his mom are openly loving, for one. By contrast, the minute that Valérie and her son, Lucas (Garlan Erlos), drive in from Paris to visit Michelle, the mood turns ugly. Valérie is petulant and nakedly greedy, and she soon asks for Michelle's house. 'I'll owe less in taxes when you die,' she says before taking a swig of wine.
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(Photo by The New) Illustration by The New York Historical, Getty Images Ziegfeld's 'Follies Girls' were beautiful. But they were known for more than their looks. Fashion and glamour were a critical part of the revue show. As historian Elspeth H. Brown notes, some of the women in such reviews were actually tasked with being fashion models instead of dancers or actresses, putting the 'show' in 'showgirl' as they 'paraded clothing before the audience.' Ziegfeld's shows would give hundreds their start in showbiz. Though some became celebrities, other showgirls were stigmatized for putting their bodies on display. Longstanding connections between the theater, prostitution, and sexual exploitation plagued showgirl revues, and sexual abuse was rife within the profession. Wealthy patrons expected to be able to court—and exploit—dancers who caught their attention, and the musical revue genre coexisted with burlesque shows, strip teases, and other titillating forms of entertainment. That connection remained as showgirls made their way to Sin City in the 1940s and 1950s, chasing the wealth and glamour of a rapidly growing Las Vegas strip. The first modern casino there, El Rancho Vegas, featured the 'El Rancho Starlets,' a group of showgirls renowned for being scantily clad. As Vegas grew and celebrity investment yielded an entire strip of casinos, nightclubs and performance venues, showgirls grew more popular, sometimes even eclipsing the big-name performers on the bill. Casinos became notable for choosing only the most beautiful women to process in feathers and sequins, dazzling showgoers and helping give Las Vegas its reputation for entertainment. Indeed, showgirls are credited with helping the city weather a rough recession, though the genre declined during the 1970s and 1980s. Eventually, though, longstanding shows like the Tropicana's Folies-Bergere began shutting down, and the opulent showgirl revue is now a thing of the past. 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