Paris of today and Paris in the late 19th century, Normandy too for that matter. That is what we see paralleled in La Venue de L’Avenir (the arrival of the future).

Released last year, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, directed and co-created by Cédric Klapisch, the film begins in L’Orangerie as tourists take in the ethereal beauty that Claude Monet created and never saw with his own eyes the adoration and popularity that it receives today.

The premise of the film is introduced when a large piece of farmland and homestead in Normandy are vyed by developers for urban buildings and more housing, but first the descedants of the original owner must agree as to what to do. When the four distant cousins that are tapped to manage the estate and lead discussions visit the overgrown property and explore the contents of the house, they discover photographs of the family and a painting.

The painting leads them to take it to an art historian to determine its provenance and authenticity, and this is where we begin to see a playful storyline that while created by the writers may hold some possibility in truth as we just can never be sure. It centers around Claude Monet, and his first painting, Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression Sunrise), painted in 1872 while overlooking the harbor at Le Havre. This location, this history is shared in the film, and why I found myself delighting in the plot all the more.

The intermixing of truth, history as well as fiction, the family that may or may not have ties to Monet, is the vehicle through which Klapisch prompts the discussion about all that we have gained as well as lost to time. From painting being the first way of capturing a moment and then photography and a mention of moving pictures. We explore these evolutions through the characters’ careers themselves and why and how Paris holds both the past, the present and the seeds of a potentially bright future with conscientious decision-making by those aware of the past’s gifts.

As I share in the podcast episode where this film was chosen as the Petit Plaisir, when I first watched the trailer, I was a bit confused as to how the two different time periods were being portrayed – was it a time machine? And thankfully no, it is two different stories that parallel each other, and some of the characters who play roles in the present also play roles in the past, but not as themselves.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film as it takes to the actual locales of Monet’s home, inside the brilliantly bright yellow dining room, and his garden at Giverny. We also visit La Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, and view the harbor where Monet captured his original painting.

Also, there are some cameos of known French actors sprinkled about. For example, Philippine LeRoy-Beaulieu appears in a short, but hard-to-miss scene playing Sarah Bernhardt.

Have a look at the trailer below and find the film on the streaming platform France Channel, via Amazon Prime if you have that, or viewed directly on France Channel.

• France Channel
• Amazon Prime

Watch the trailer below:

 

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