For many, life generally sees an ebb and flow of people and relationships until you finally settle down and start to build a family around you. But what happens when that all falls apart, particularly if you’re past middle-age? It’s that question, viewed through the lens of a woman, that Mia Hansen-Løve explores in her new film, “Things To Come.”
Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, the movie stars Isabelle Huppert as a high school philosophy teacher who has to rebuild her life after her husband leaves her. It’s a simple premise, but one that unfolds into something truly special, or as Jessica Kiang described, “a thrillingly compassionate, deceptively simple, and wholly invested look at a capable older woman with a lively mind coping with a series of common misfortunes.” Here’s the official synopsis:
Nathalie (Huppert) teaches philosophy at a Parisian high school. She is deeply passionate about her job and enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking to others. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her eccentric mother, leading a life of personal and intellectual fulfilment. Unexpectedly, Nathalie’s husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With an newfound freedom suddenly thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent herself and establish a new way of living.
“Things To Come” opens in the U.K. on September 2nd, and will arrive in U.S. cinemas via Sundance Selects.