When Autumn Falls (12A)

(Subtitled)

Hélène Vincent is wonderful as a devoted grandmother who isn’t quite what she seems in this understated French tale of family dysfunction.

This is another little treat from François Ozon; Michelle (Vincent) lives in the countryside, near her best friend, Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), who's grown up son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) is nearing the end of a prison term. Michelle has a tense, unhappy relationship with her recently divorced and permanently angry daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) but adores her grandson Lucas. They come to stay and Michelle inadvertently serves them poisonous mushrooms that she has picked in the nearby forest, and Valérie has to be taken to hospital.

Nothing, ultimately, comes from this accident except the expansion of animosities, and Michelle fears that she’ll never get to see Lucas again because of it.  Michelle is clearly capable of ruthlessness, lying and obstructing the course of justice, and perhaps she is guilty of a kind of unintended, delayed murder. But the film invites us to ignore this dark side to her and the dysfunction she has implanted in Lucas in favour of a bittersweet sadness.