Things to Come, written and directed by Mia Hansen Love, with Isabelle Huppert

Things to Come, written and directed by Mia Hansen Love, with Isabelle Huppert

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/

Given that Isabelle Huppert, probably the best actress in the world, has the leading role in this film, Things to Come is excellent.

It is thought provoking and sophisticated.

The psychological drama has even won:

-          The Bucharest International Film Festival Prize…

We do not have a mainstream blockbuster.

That is for sure.

The fantastic Isabelle Huppert is Nathalie Chazeaux.

A teacher of philosophy, she wants her students to learn to think for themselves.

In many ways she is a role model.

Dedicated, resilient, present even when there is a strike or a walkout of students and those happen so often in France.

The philosophy teacher wants to get to her classes, even when the people outside call her names and they are aggressive.

Furthermore, brave as she is, when one of the students is absent because she is blocked outside, she intervenes.

There are plenty of issues, questions, quotes from Pascal and Rousseau- I have learned about the latter that he was an obnoxious man, having left his children at the door of the orphanage, at a time when nine of ten in that position died.

Yvette Lavastre- what an interesting name- the teacher’s mother is a very difficult challenge, in the first part of the story.

The old woman is calling her daughter in the middle of the night and she has the rescue services very often at the door.

Indeed, on account of one such intervention, Nathalie Chazeaux has to abandon her class to attend to her mother.

That class took place in open air, in a park, proving once more what a liberated and open teacher this wonderful lady is.

She is married to Heinz- yet another interesting name- and her mother does not recall him or his name.

They have two children, but one of them jokes that Nathalie has always referred one of her students and wished he was her son:

Fabien – portrayed very well by the young Roman Kolinka- comes to be more important in the teacher’s life.

Because from one point on:

-          Things Fall Apart ( a masterpiece by Chinua Achebe, included on prestigious lists of the best novels ever)

First of all, the mother is getting worse and she cannot cope without continuous help and then collapses all together.

-          She dies

Sayings are most often stupid and “bad things come in threes” is definitely no exception, even if there may be psychological explanations

One would be “Words Create Worlds” as Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar has put it and it depends on the mindset.

Positive people live longer, are healthier, have better private lives and more successful professional ones.

On the contrary, negativity generates negative results and it could be argued that one negative event may cause a certain attitude that would favor A Series of Unfortunate Events and a sort of vicious circle or negative spiral.

It is not the case with Nathalie Chazeaux, for she did not do anything to make her husband leave her, it had been an affair that was going on for quite some time.

-          All Is Lost (another very good movie, with Robert Redford)?

-          Maybe not…