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Review: Things to Come (L’Avenir, 2016) ★★★★★

<p><em>Things to Come<&sol;em> is a French-German philosophical drama film&comma; written and directed by Mia Hansen-Love&comma; about a brilliant educator coping with a midlife crisis&period; The central character&comma; Nathalie &lpar;Isabelle Huppert&rpar;&comma; is a philosophy professor who has traded in the radicalism of her youth for a more thoughtful&comma; passive&comma; even &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bourgeois” way of being&period; She is married to another philosophy professor&comma; Heinz &lpar;Andre Marcon&rpar;&comma; who is more traditional in his ideals &lpar;as well as his teaching methodology&rpar;&comma; and often teases her about her past as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Communist&period;” Despite having two grown children and a full-time job&comma; Nathalie must spend much of her time caring for her hypochondriac mother&comma; Yvette&comma; played very convincingly by Édith Scob &lpar;<em>Eyes Without a Face<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; who suffers from frequent and severe panic attacks&period; She calls Nathalie incessantly&comma; pleading for her daughter to come take care of her at all times of the day and night&period; However&comma; after striking up a platonic&comma; intellectual relationship with one of her former students&comma; Fabien &lpar;Roman Kolinka&rpar;&comma; tragedy strikes on multiple fronts&comma; and Nathalie must cope with the new circumstances&comma; which force her to reflect on her life and the philosophical concepts that have defined her life for decades&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Things to Come<&sol;em> is a film primarily about philosophy&comma; and about living a contemplative life even in the face of extreme hardship and adversity&period; It presents characters that exalt the study of philosophy as perhaps the highest of all virtues&comma; and then attempt to live out the theories they espouse with varying degrees of success&period; Nathalie is the former radical who simply wants to teach her students to think for themselves&comma; while Andre is the traditional&comma; conservative philosopher whose values are only vaguely alluded to in the film&period; Fabien is more of a young radical&comma; who decides to live on a commune out in the country&comma; to continue his philosophical writing while eschewing the pleasures of the bourgeois city life&period; Nathalie is somewhat obsessed with Fabien&comma; who impresses her as a writer and thinker&comma; and also reminds her of the youthful optimism that she once embraced&comma; but has now cast aside&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking has to be choosing how much information to give to the audience&period; Many films give us far too much information&comma; and require no thought on our part &lpar;non-contemplative films&rpar;&comma; while others give us too little information&comma; and leave us scratching our heads&comma; trying to piece together a cryptic or even incomplete narrative&period; <em>Things to Come<&sol;em> strikes a perfect balance as a contemplative film&comma; giving us only the information we need&comma; no more and no less&period; Nathalie’s life is laid out for before us&comma; with all of the missteps and lost opportunities&comma; and we even have some access to her way of thinking&comma; and the values that she projects out into the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;835" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-835" style&equals;"width&colon; 714px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-835" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;things-to-come-2016-007-roman-kolinka-isabelle-huppert-in-garden-at-twilight-ORIGINAL-300x200&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Roman Kolinka and Isabelle Huppert in Things to Come 2016" width&equals;"714" height&equals;"476" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-835" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Nathalie converses with her younger&comma; more idealistic student&comma; Fabien&comma; played by Roman Kolinka &lpar;Things to Come&comma; 2016&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>We are made to observe Nathalie’s life&comma; untainted by any judgment&comma; and the many trials and obstacles that she faces over the years&period; She faces them bravely&comma; clinging to her philosophical knowledge and ideals for support&comma; even while her life ostensibly crumbles around her&period; Nothing ever presupposes that we should feel anything but an empathetic connection with Isabelle Huppert’s character&comma; thus allowing us to fully engage with her and contemplate her existential crisis from a closer vantage point&period; She views thought and reality as one and the same&comma; and thus cannot separate her theories from the life that she lives&comma; or the one that she aspires to live&period; Fabien criticizes her for abandoning the revolutionary passion of her youth&comma; but she sees this as a natural part of growing old&period; She sees radicalism as a way of being for the young&comma; whereas the old are destined to fall back into more traditional modes of interpretation and thought&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to a compelling and thought-provoking script&comma; the cinematography in <em>Things to Come<&sol;em> is breathtaking&period; Much of the film is shot on location in France&comma; with the characters moving through beautiful&comma; natural locales&comma; from the cobblestone streets of Paris&comma; to the high cliffs of Grand Bé&period; The filmmakers frequently pan out to take in the landscape&comma; urging us to engage in contemplative thought&comma; just as Nathalie contemplates her existence and direction in life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The ability to engage the audience in contemplation with Nathalie is perhaps the most effective and intriguing quality of <em>Things to Come<&sol;em>&period; Many filmmakers have tried to make films in which philosophy is openly discussed&comma; but it often comes across as stale&comma; or mere self-indulgence on the part of the scriptwriter&period; But in <em>Things to Come<&sol;em>&comma; the philosophical discussions never overpower us&comma; and never try to beat us over the head with moral platitudes or high-minded idealism&period; It is minimalism at its finest&period; We simply observe people as they live&comma; observe&comma; and think&comma; and it encourages us to do the same&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf;&starf;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <em>Things to Come<&sol;em>&comma; it is available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B071H8475T&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B071H8475T&amp&semi;linkId&equals;ca636199b8379e64df10de04c652bb55">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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