La venue de l'avenir

The latest from the always genial Cedric Klapisch (Back to Burgundy; Russian Dolls; The Spanish Inn) is a deceptively simple but entrancing movie about Paris past and present, ancestry, women, painting and photography.

Brought together by the unexpected inheritance of an abandoned house in Normandy, four cousins, previously strangers, discover a mysterious shared past. Two centuries earlier, Adèle Munier, their ancestor and owner of the house, left her rural home for Paris in search of her mother’s identity, at the heart of the city’s modernization and the rise of Impressionism. As her descendants follow in her footsteps, they unravel Adèle’s past to forge their own future. Two intertwined periods collide, as the family members’ contemporary perspectives are pitted against the fascinating reality of 19th-century Paris.

Tenderness, good humor, nostalgia, and optimism are at the heart of La Venue de l’avenir. Juxtaposing two vibrant eras where image—and the power attributed to it—holds a prominent place, the filmmaker gently pokes fun at the foibles of our age, where influencers call the shots, and pays a lovely tribute to the visionary creators of the past.

Manon Dumais, La Presse

Cédric Klapisch crafts an irresistible compendium of everything you go to the movies for when you need a pick-me-up and someone to love you, even if they’re French.

Luis Martinez, El Mundo