Things to Come (2016 film)


Things to Come is a 2016 French-German drama film written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. It stars Isabelle Huppert as middle-aged philosophy professor Nathalie Chazeaux, whose life is going through a series of separations.
Things to Come received critical acclaim and was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, Hansen-Løve won the Silver Bear for Best Director. Huppert won several nominations and awards for her performance in the film, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, and the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actress of the Year.

Plot

Nathalie teaches philosophy in a Parisian high school, but for her it is not just a job, it is a way of living and thinking. With a past permeated by youthful idealism, she now aims to teach students to think for themselves, using philosophical texts that stimulate confrontation and discussion. Her life flows between her work, her husband, her two children, and her ex-model mother who needs constant attention. But suddenly everything changes: her husband leaves her, her mother dies and Nathalie finds herself with unexpected and unusual freedom.

Cast

said she wrote the role of Nathalie with Isabelle Huppert in mind. She also said Nathalie was loosely based on her mother, who was a philosophy professor and separated from her husband later in life. Principal photography began on 22 June 2015 in Paris.

Reception

Critical response

Things to Come received critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 99%, based on 142 reviews, with an average score of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A union to cherish between a writer-director and star working at peak power, Things to Come offers quietly profound observations on life, love, and the irrevocable passage of time." At Metacritic, the film received an weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 28 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades