A Little Chaos (2015)

We're told it's a sin to speak ill of the dead. Unfortunately, when reviewing Alan Rickman's 17th-century costume drama, A Little Chaos, committing such a sin might be necessary in order to convey the sheer awfulness of the late thespian's and concomitant director's project. Please don't construe that my intent is to disparage Mr. Rickman in general—quite the contrary, he was one of the finest actors of our time, who handled a vast range of roles most often with the highest aplomb.Here, unfortunately, he not only made the mistake of acting in this turgid drama but contributed as one of the co-writers to the screenplay. The story was conceived by one Allison Deegan who somehow got the idea that there was much drama in the creation of the grand gardens at Versailles during the reign of King Louis IV in France. The focus is on landscaper Monsieur André Le Nôtre who designed the gardens and enjoyed the patronage of King Louis throughout his life. Unfortunately, Le Nôtre was pushing 70 when the film's narrative begins in 1682. Instead, Deegan transformed Le Nôtre into a stud half the real character's age and the handsome Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts was conscripted to play opposite Kate Winslet as Sabine de Barra, an independent landscaper who is hired specifically to build a fountain surrounding a small outdoor ballroom out in the middle of nowhere.Sabine is a completely fictional character and the idea of woman working as an independent landscaper at that time is laughable. But Rickman was delighted with the idea. As quoted by Susan King in the L.A. Times, "There would be no woman with a profession at that time," Rickman noted, adding that he loved the idea of "putting a completely fictitious character in the middle of a known bit of history." As we slog through the proceedings (waiting for the forgone conclusion of the Versailles landscaping triumph), we must endure Winslet in the wish fulfillment plot of a feminist pioneer that never existed. Dull second act machinations include Sabine being rebuffed by laborers who don't want to work with a woman, one of Le Nôtre's former job applicants offering to help, and Sabine's clever creation of a pump to divert water from a river to the fountain and back.Romance between Le Nôtre and Sabine is postponed after Le Nôtre's displeasure over Sabine's decision to place plants in the garden outside of his ordered design. The spat between the two landscapers reflects the historical conflict between order and chaos, prevalent in landscape architectural circles at the time.The lugubrious plot continues to pitch forward and we are introduced to King Louis IV and his court. The King's brother, Duc Philippe d'Orleans, played by Stanley Tucci, is introduced as an effeminate bon vivant-bisexual, but also married to the German Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine. Tucci's character provides some atmosphere but does little to advance the plot.Rickman's King Louis IV turns out to be a rather low-key, unexciting good guy. When Sabine mistakes him for a common gardener, the King plays along and isn't upset with her for not recognizing him. He takes such a liking towards her, that she's invited to the court at Fontainebleau.Alex von Tunzelmann, writing in the The Guardian, notes another historical faux pas: "There is a painfully overwritten scene about aging women being like roses who lose their bloom, delivered for the benefit of Louis's mistress Madame de Montespan (Jennifer Ehle), who is being passed over for the implicitly younger and fresher Madame de Maintenon. This is not only bad, but wrong: in real life, La Maintenon was five years older than La Montespan."Nonetheless it's Montespan who introduces Sabine to the King and gives him a four-seasons flower, inspiring a conversation on the rose and its life cycle, a metaphor as Wikipedia tell us, "intended to warm him toward his mistress."If there's an antagonist here, it's Le Nôtre's wife, Françoise, who believes in sex outside marriage but only if she's on the receiving end. She has her Cruella de Vil moment when she visits Sabine and insists that Le Nôtre's interest in her is only a whim. What's more, two goons she's hired open flood gates, destroying all of Sabine's hard work. Le Nôtre is able to get out of the relationship with the evil Françoise, after finding a glove belonging to her at the flood site, implicating her in the dark deed. This is the dark moment at the end of the second act and we've waited an inordinate time to get to it.The road back of course has to be the consummation of the love between Le Nôtre and Sabine. This in turn allows her to confront the repressed memories of the long-ago death of her husband and young daughter, killed in a carriage accident. Sabine's project is finally completed and there's a big celebration. Game, set, match!There isn't one iota of humor in A Little Chaos and the actors go about their business with grim faces. Schoenaerts has little to do as the handsome landscaper and Winslet is unconvincing as a feminist heroine who we know never existed. Rickman fares little better as a darker side is never really suggested.Score this as a vanity project and an unfortunate swan song to a great actor's career. A Little Chaos does have good costumes so see it for that if you must see it at all.

Well, this movie was interesting for me as it involves the late « Severus Rogue » and the dear Kate but also because it explores the history of our french palace Versailles which is indeed a true location for stories (just visit it and you'll understand why !). In addition, we have a British opinion about french history so for a Frenchman like me, we can get something else than the usual yes propaganda ! Honestly, the movie is not that great as the pace is really slow, the romance really expected and the production a bit cheap (except for the costumes): i expected to be thrown into the XVII century and discovered the sumptuous look of Versailles, the old streets of Paris but the movie happens in this outdoor site and the interior sets are really few (Louvre, Fontainebleau)… Thus unlike the other movies that insist on baroque, grandiose, this one offers an almost intimate portray of the royals, that is at least honest when portraying their loose manners ! Rickman really excels being the king with his royal voice and restraint attitude and finds sometimes good visuals as the director. Finally, only the ultimate scene depicts the power of french royalty and it's a bit unfortunate that there wasn't more scenes like this !

I watched this through to the end in the hope that there would be an amazing ending or a twist. Anything to relieve the boredom from watching this drivel.Everything about it was awful. I did not believe any of the characters, I will overlook the Frenchman who spoke with a thick Northern English accent, but if this was an amateur play, maybe I could forgive it, but these are well known seasoned actors and no one seemed convincing at all.Kate Winslet was particularly dull, I am sure she was almost asleep in some scenes but the main problem was that nothing lifted the film from being so very dull.The sabotage scene was almost interesting, but even that was as wet as the garden project became.I cannot understand why anyone liked this dull, dreary, lifeless movie.

At first, many thanks to Alan Rickman for making a lavish film with a sublime cinematography and fabulous acting! The plot has its weak points and historical inaccuracy, but it is all in all a good and entertaining film: 8/10. I really liked the fact that Rickman created a very fictional female character from the 17th century who is a landscape architect (Kate Winslet) and is building a garden at Versailles for King Louis XIV (Alan Rickman). The imagination on doing so is huge! Rickman and Winslet reunite in this film after their marvellous romantic period film Sense and Sensibility which dates back to 1995 and they still have a great chemistry together. I really liked their shared scenes and dialogues, it gives a warm touch to the storyline.Kate Winslet really shows here that no matter how many actresses want, or properly said, get to play roles in period dramas, she is still the number 1 in these kind of films. She shows great emotions in her eyes, her attitude, walking, looking, speaking and her abilities of crying like an old soul. It is a real delight to watch her and she is one of these women who will never get old, because her expression will always remain young and alive. There is a scene of desperate trauma which is an Oscar-worthy performance by her.Period dramas actually present a great opportunity to be able to understand the situations and conflicts between people and history of old times better, IF it is truthfully made. These kind of films should respond to women as well as men and it shouldn't contain boring dialogues. à propos boring, if anyone has had the wish to watch the 2014 version of Madame Bovary, I really highly NOT recommend it. I will rescue you all by NOT recommending it for you to watch it, since it is inadvisable. It is such a wrongly made and terrible film with an extremely awful, untalented, pale and dull actress, you can't even imagine. I recommend you all instead to watch Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), which is also starring Matthias Schoenaerts and the great Michael Sheen.Matthias Schoenaerts, who is playing here a landscape architect shares great chemistry with Winslet. He has the ability to look enamoured at a woman&makes the audience believe that he is in love with her. He has a calm appearance, which I like about him and although he looks too modern for period dramas, he fits to lovestruck character roles. Apart from Rickman's versatile acting, a huge thumbs up to Stanley Tucci who can pull off every role perfectly. He is an insanely good actor and deserves more lead roles! It's a pity that this film got limited release, so that I couldn't watch it at the cinema, but since I got the blu-ray, I could enjoy the wonderful colourful cinematography of it!