Weekend films

'Under the Leaves', an intriguing detective story from another era

At the cinema, François Ozon's new film mixes different genres, ranging from drama to mystery. Also among the new releases is 'Eden' by Ron Howard

11 April 2025

3' min read

Ozon continues to play with genres: knowing the French director, we are used to his films in which stylistic canons are constantly overturned and mixed.

From the very beginning of his career, François Ozon has combined very different genres, combining, for example, drama with the grotesque in 'Sitcom', or crime films with comedy and the musical in '8 Women a Mystery', without skimping on decidedly unconventional ways of dealing with thrillers or melodrama.

“Sotto le foglie” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery4 foto

Although more than 20 years have passed since these early works, Ozon continues to surprise in this respect with 'Under the Leaves', a film in which the family drama combines with the thriller to create a curious detective story with a vintage flavour.

At the centre of the plot is Michelle, a pensioner living in a quiet village in Burgundy: she shares her life with her long-time friend Marie-Claude and tends her vegetable garden. Her routine is disrupted by the arrival of her daughter Valérie and grandson Lucas: Valérie is aloof and resentful towards her mother because of a difficult past, while Marie-Claude is worried about her son Vincent, recently released from prison.

After the amusing 'Mon crime', Ozon signs a film that is undoubtedly more disturbing, capable of placing the above-mentioned genres in a context that also verges on the polar, a typically French way of telling the story of both literature and cinema, in which the detective story mixes with noir.

Emotions and Mysteries

What really matters in 'Beneath the Leaves', however, are human relationships and the difficulty of communication concerning the relationship between parents and children: Ozon had already reasoned on these dynamics in titles such as 'It all went well', among his most touching works, or in the magnificent 'Le temps qui reste', in which the relationship between a boy and his beloved grandmother was also discussed.

Although there is nothing particularly new in this feature film and some script choices are a little forced, on the whole 'Under the Leaves' is a film that excites and entertains in the right way, thanks to a compelling plot and an adequate dose of mystery.

The skits between the two elderly protagonists, well played by Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko, work very well.

Ozon, as always, is also tireless and is already preparing his next work, which will be an adaptation of Camus' 'The Stranger' starring Benjamin Voisin.

Eden

Among the new releases is 'Eden', the new film by Ron Howard.

At the centre of the plot are two idealistic Europeans who decide to flee Germany in 1929, disavowing, among other things, bourgeois values, convinced that they are destroying the true nature of humanity. The two move to an uninhabited island of Floreana in the Galápagos archipelago, but the solitude they have so long sought will not last long.

In this film, too, there is a mixture of genres, bringing together thriller and adventure, joined at times by the tragicomic behaviour of the various characters on stage, but the balance achieved by Ozon in his film is a mirage for 'Eden', a victim of a rather ramshackle screenplay that makes the whole thing scarcely credible (despite being inspired by real events) and even less engaging.

There are a few disturbing passages at the right point, but the end result is sluggish, confused and disappointing, given also the many names involved in the cast: from Jude Law to Ana de Armas, via Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl.