This film is also a superb mystery. Director François Ozon talks about the film "When Autumn Comes"

François Ozon, a French film director who is also popular in Japan, will be releasing his new film, "When Autumn Comes." The film is a drama about the people surrounding Michelle (Hélène Vincent), an 80-year-old woman in the twilight of her life who lives alone in the beautiful Burgundy region, and is also a superb mystery, typical of Ozon. We spoke to Ozon himself about the film.

A continuation of the previous work, Sisterhood

One of the highlights of the film is the friendship between Michelle and Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasco), an old work colleague who lives in the same village. In depicting this sisterhood of women, the film also seems connected to Ozon's previous film, "I Did It," which depicts two young women working together to exonerate one another in a murder case, although the style is quite different.

"The first film was a comedy, and this one is a human drama. Also, the first one was about young women, and this one is about older women, so I see them as different things in my mind, but as you said, they have sisterhood in common, and both women are fighting. In the first film, it was against a male-dominated society. The setting is the 1930s, a time when misogyny was still prevalent.

In this film, both elderly women have shameful pasts that they find difficult to open up about, and they have raised their children while fighting against the fact that society still refuses to accept them. In that sense, the common thread is the solidarity of women who are constantly fighting."

Mystery gives rise to space for imagination

The film begins when Michel's daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) and her son Luca (Garland Herros), who live in Paris and with whom he has worked so hard to raise but with whom he has a strained relationship, visit his country home for the first time in a long while. However, when his daughter gets sick from a mushroom dish he serves her, their relationship deteriorates even further.

Meanwhile, his friend Marie-Claude has a son, Vincent (Pierre Rothin), who has just been released from prison. Michel is providing him with financial support to help him get back on his feet, but Vincent, unable to see his grandson and depressed, goes to Valéry's apartment in Paris to offer his advice. After the two meet, an "incident" occurs on the balcony.

However, the camera never captures that exact moment, which causes all sorts of questions and speculation to arise in the viewer's mind, and they unknowingly find themselves trapped in the Ozone-style mystery.

"The characters I portrayed this time have both good and bad sides, and are not black and white, but I deliberately attempted to create them that way. Of course, in the film we can see what they say and do, but the hidden desires and unconscious realm that lie deep within are unfathomable. In other words, rather than me telling you everything, I left room for the audience's imagination.

As the screenwriter, I know what happened on that balcony. But I deliberately chose not to film it. By not doing so, I thought it would be good if the audience could imagine the scene in the scenario they wanted. Some people have a very optimistic interpretation, while others have the opposite. Some say Michelle is a wonderful grandmother, while others say she's a monster. I'm very happy that each audience member can fill in their own part of the scenario in this way. And isn't that what life is all about?

The muse of early Ozone films appears for the first time in nearly 20 years

I'm happy to say that the role of Michel's daughter Valerie, who is involved in the balcony scene, is played by Ludivine Sagnier, who was a muse for early Ozon films such as "8 Women" and "Swimming Pool." This will be her first appearance in an Ozon film in about 20 years.

"You could almost say that we made our debut together, and she's like a younger sister to me. The last film we shot was 'Swimming Pool.' About 20 years have passed since then, and now she's a mother of three children. I'm very interested in seeing how a woman changes over time. So when I told Ludivine that we should make this film together and handed her the script, her first reaction was, 'Oh, François. That's not a very pleasant role at all.' (laughs) She then said, 'But that's exactly why I decided to take it.'"

Mushrooms serve as a metaphor for the film

Finally, we asked about the mushrooms that appear as important props in the film.

"Mushrooms are also a metaphor for this film. Mushrooms have a dual nature: they're delicious when cooked, but they could potentially be poisonous. I think that applies to life and people. There are people you think are really nice, but who turn out to be surprisingly dangerous. In that sense, it's important in life to come across as many delicious, non-poisonous mushrooms as possible.

This film begins and ends in autumn, which also comes from mushrooms. It begins with a scene of people picking mushrooms in the forest in autumn, and at the end they return to the forest. In this way, I intended to depict the cycle of life."

Ozon continues to work energetically on films, producing one every one to two years. His next project is a remake of Albert Camus' The Stranger, set in Morocco. We can't wait to see it completed.