C'était mieux demain

CYCLE OF TIME begins as a family portrait from the 1950s: Michel goes to work, Hélène keeps the house, their young son is a lovable scatterbrain, and daughter Jeanne is a withdrawn teenager. The Dupuis home looks like a postcard from the postwar boom, complete with a neat garden and the promise of neighborhood barbecues. When a domestic quarrel over a new washing machine turns into a shock, the couple are suddenly thrown into the present. In that new world, the film lets Michel and Hélène stumble through everyday wonders with wide-eyed disbelief. Coffee machines obey a voice, robot vacuums patrol the floor, and video calls place a distant spouse on a screen. What starts as comic confusion soon becomes a sharper conflict as the couple realise that the rules of family life have changed with them. The deeper surprise is social rather than technical. Hélène now works and even leads at her job, while the family must face a society that has moved on to marriage equality. When Jeanne's wedding to a woman comes into view, the couple's old certainties collide with a world that no longer fits their assumptions. The comedy uses that tension to contrast reactionary reflexes with the possibilities of a more open present. Vinciane Millereau's feature debut is driven by Elsa Zylberstein and Didier Bourdon, whose performances give the story its most persuasive balance of resistance and curiosity. The review notes some logic leaps and limited character development, but also finds that the central duo keeps the film lively. CYCLE OF TIME works as a time-travel comedy about family, change, and the uneasy road from habit to acceptance.