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Chaos and Desire review
:. Director: Manon Briand
:. Starring: Pascale Bussières, Julie Gayet
:. Running Time: 1:52
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: France
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In Chaos and Desire director Manon Briand plays with the laws of nature as well as cinematic clichés for a film that is both poetic and lighthearted.
Pascale Bussières plays Alice Bradley, an independent seismology specialist working in Tokyo. On a mission to study the strange disappearance of a tide off the coast of Quebec, she finds herself in her native village, where the locals seem to be behaving rather strangely. In this semi-autobiographical tale shot in Briand's native village, the independent heroine, who is constantly running away from her past, is eaten up by loneliness. Her arrival in this small town will have a significant effect on her life and the life of the inhabitants.
With Pascale Bussières, Julie Gayet and Geneviève Bujold in the lead roles, women are clearly the focus of Chaos and Desire. However, this is more an ode to women (as independant, lesbians or nuns) than a feminist work. This movie clearly has a female touch. Emotional, but not too simplistic, the plot portrays the only man in the tale, Marc Vandal (Jean-Nicolas Verreault), as loyal and trustworthy.
The film is about the attraction of opposites—geographical, sexual and ideological. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo is contrasted with the calm and mundaneness of the Quebecois village on the other side of the world. Drawn together, the moon and the earth are responsible for the irregular tides, the impossible love exists between Catherine (Julie Gayet) and Alice, and Alice and Marc play cat and mouse. As a scientist, Alice is in opposition with religion. Not only is the seismology device found in a convent, but everything seems to indicate that all problems, from the disappearance of the tide to the unnatural behavior of the locals, have a supernatural and spiritual origin. This is where the subtlety of the plot lies. While we may have been expecting an X-Files-type plot, Briand gently brings us back to earth. Full of metaphors, this film symbolizes desire and the themes of attraction and opposition clearly have sexual connotations.
Water symbolizes life and the materialization of desire and maternity. Alice is reborn through a baptism in the ocean and the return of the tide. This allegory is curiously reminiscent of Respiro by Emanuele Crialese and The Deep End by Scott McGehee & David Siegel. All three films portray independent female heroines who have an affinity with water, whether the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea or Lake Tahoe.
The polished cinematography of Chaos and Desire is sadly marred by the pop video-type sequences, which not only vitiate the intimacy of the story, but also create an air of superficiality. Pascale and Marc's Soap Opera Digest relationship will no doubt confuse many viewers not on the feminist bandwagon. Throughout it all, the film happily retains its sense of humor, pulling us into the chaos.
Fred Thom
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