Things to Come

Everything in a philosophy teacher's life changes within one year: her husband leaves, her mother dies, her publisher drops her books. Nobody asks her what she will do. The film does not dramatise the crisis; the narrative shows her teaching, getting on a bus, shopping, rather than crying, and presents freedom as both gain and loneliness. The philosophical texts are not decoration but the character's means of thinking. Mia Hansen-Love wrote and directed and won the directing award in Berlin. Isabelle Huppert stars. Who it's for: those who like calm, thought-driven French drama. Who it's not for: viewers wanting incident; the film passes over its crises quietly on purpose.