Director: Alan Rickman
Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Helen McCrory, Stanley Tucci
Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 117 minutes
Although many will recognise Alan Rickman from this roles in the Harry Potter series, Die Hard and Love Actually (amongst many, many other titles), some will be surprised to learn that he’s also an established director, with A Little Chaos his second foray behind the camera.
Kate Winslet stars as Sabine de Barra, a passionate gardener appointed by landscaper André Le Nôtre (Schoenaerts) to design and build a lavish outdoor ballroom for King Louis XIV’s (Rickman) Versailles palace. Known for her love of the nontraditional and of a little chaos, de Barra becomes popular amongst France’s royal circle, despite not a drop of high ranking blood in her family tree. However, not everyone is so welcoming; after Le Nôtre’s unsatisfied and unfaithful wife, Madame Françoise (McCrory), catches her husband’s attention waning, she sets out a plan to ruin de Barra’s garden and her reputation, forever.
With the UK known for our love of historical/period drama (Downton Abbey ring any bells?), Rickman’s A Little Chaos plays neatly into the hands of the genre. Set in 17th century France, the landscapes, buildings, decorations and costumes are exactly what you’d expect – lavish, decadent and dripping with gold – with the viewer’s eyes glued to the screen, trying to soak everything in. From the huge, sculpted interiors to the acres of flowers and trees, the camera pans across everything, giving you a real sense of the world the characters live in.
Aside from the visuals, Rickman‘s direction of his cast is pretty impressive. Winslet perfectly embodies the independent woman with a secret, yearning for companionship but is content working alone, while Schoenaerts is the typical serious, stoic (and a little wooden) type, happy to let his wife do as she pleases. However, it’s Rickman himself who steals the show as the eccentric but lonely King Louis, passionate about three things: women, riches, and extravagant clothing. Despite their differences in rank all three characters come into contact with each other throughout the story, showing that the pompous facade and restrictions in class don’t always stick, and that if things are meant to be they will play out in the end.
Beautifully written and shot, A Little Chaos is a mix of everything: romance, heartache, drama and revelation (with a pinch of comedy thrown in by Stanley Tucci‘s tongue-in-cheek Duke Philippe d’Orleans). The ideal film for fans of the genre and of the cast.
A Little Chaos is released on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 24th August 2015.
