L'avenir (Things To Come)

Photo credit: www.imdb.com

L'avenir (Things To Come) I came across by chance. I was in the mood for watching a horror film and there were two option on Dvdigi. One didn't work and the other was very boring and I didn't want to get up from the couch. So I started this one and it turned out to be a very good film. It is one of those slice of life films and it didn't have any close up shots on the actors (the two things I don't really care for) But I liked it very much. We witness the life of an intellectual philosophy teacher who is married for 25 years and has two children. Her mother is very needy for attention and she takes care of them all while reading and generally intellectually going through different phases in the philosophies she supports. We find out that he husband cheats on her and given a ultimatom by his children he chooses his mistress asking for a divorce. The publishing house she has a contract with first redesign her book covers in a garish way she doesn't like and then later decides not to renew her contract. Her mother aggravates the fire department by calling them with a false alarm as often as three times a week and she has to move her to an old people's home. She has a student who she is very attached to and they intellectually respect and admire each other. This student moves to a country farm. Then her mother passes away. And right after her funeral when she was silent crying in the bus she sees her ex-husband with his new girlfriend. Life goes on and despite feeling sad, hurt and vulnarable she carries on and the film ends on a high note. I loved the whole thing. Isabelle Huppert is a fantastic actress, one of the very best. She is not one that I love but one is always guaranteed a good performance if she is in a film (any kind of film). And she is fantastic here. I also admired her old woman's body. As an aging woman I loved how slim and fit she looked (without any emphasis on the whole thing, and she covers below the belt with pareos but she looks perfect).