Well seasoned

Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko as Michele and Marie-Claude in When Fall Is Coming. François Ozon: 'In this film, I weighted it in favour of the intelligence of the viewer' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

François Ozon: 'I wanted beautiful women like this and to shoot their wrinkles and their reality' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival/Alex Abril

Things are often not quite what they originally seem in François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming. His latest film is a playful riff on a domestic drama that incorporates a mystery element and the supernatural.

The setting is rural France, where elderly Michelle (Hélène Vincent) is preparing for a visit from her daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) and grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos). An unfortunate event drives a further wedge between the women’s already strained relationship, a schism that happens just as Michelle is trying to help Vincent (Pierre Lotin), the son of her friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko), keep going straight after a spell in prison. Ozon balances the mood, so that the melancholy of autumn is infused with unexpected shots of humour and some surprisingly dramatic revelations as he considers guilt and innocence and the appearance of both. The film had its world premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival where Ozon and his key cast spoke about shooting complex characters in the autumn of life.

What was the original idea behind the story?

François Ozon: I made it after The Crime Is Mine, which is theatrical and a play that I wanted to adapt. I wanted to shoot in nature in Burgundy, a place where I spent my childhood, and I wanted to make a film that showed just two women of a certain age who live in the country. The two women of a certain age are invisible in cinema and I wanted to give them the leading roles. It reminded me that in my childhood one of my aunts organised a family get together and it had the idea of going to pick some mushrooms in the forest. Everyone ended up in hospital, very sick except her because she didn't eat those mushrooms. I always liked that idea and when I was a child, the truth is, I love my auntie because of the attempt of finishing off the whole family and annihilating them all.

You reveal a lot of little details at certain moments in the film, can you talk about working on the script and the development of it.

Hélène Vincent: 'The truth is it's not very usual for someone to give you such an important and complex and such a subtle role to portray when one has stopped being so young' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival/Alex Abril

FO:I had a version where everything that's not seen on the screen appears. There's things I deliberately decided to not shoot, not show, not even maintain in the editing room because editing is rewriting the script. In this film, I weighted it in favour of the intelligence of the viewer. I think the audience are sufficiently intelligent to understand this and I thought that quite often in life, we interpret things poorly or falsely and after a few years, we realise that perhaps we didn't understand things very well. In the relationship between Marie-Claude and Michele, they don't tell each other everything and they prefer not to know everything. Sometimes it's useful not to know the truth. Michelle, she's a heroine and she's also a bit of a monster because she brushes a lot of things under the carpet.

Did you think about the cast you wanted as you were writing the script?

FO: I wanted to work with actors and actresses who I like and who I love with Hélène and Josiane I had already worked with them in By The Grace Of God and both of them were good mothers there, the mothers of the boys who had suffered abuse by priests. I loved the collaboration and I wanted to shoot women who assume their age and act their age. The truth is that the actresses supposedly have to get operated on and go through cosmetic surgery. I wanted beautiful women like this and to shoot their wrinkles and their reality and they accepted to do so and, of course, they are beautiful women at their age and that was the most important thing for me.

Josiane Balasko on Ozon: 'He's someone who renews, who undertakes risks and changes genre' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival/Alex Abril

Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko, can you tell me a bit about creating your characters, because it's unusual to see women of a certain age take centre stage on the big screen?

Josiane Balasko: When Francois called me, “He said, I've written something. I've got a role for you.” I said, “Okay. And that's it. Let's go.” He is someone who I admire. He's someone who renews, who undertakes risks and changes genre.

Hélène Vincent: When I received this possibility I felt very excited and I continue to feel that excitement now. The truth is it's not very usual for someone to give you such an important and complex and such a subtle role to portray when one has stopped being so young. It happens on very few occasions itself. It’s as if all of a sudden when you reach a certain age, you would have nothing to tell but François knows how to tell stories with young women and with older women and he always opened different paths for us to be able to act. I let myself be possessed by the role I had to portray. Plus, I also worked With Josiane, we didn't know each other and it was marvellous. We worked in a very intense and beautiful way. It was a real gift.

When Fall Is Coming is currently screening at London Film Festival.