Chaos (2001)
Directed by Coline Serreau

Film Review

A wildly frenetic mix of farce, thriller, social satire and feminist diatribe, Chaos is one of those films which manages to be both be both offensive and entertaining in roughly equal measure.  Certainly the way in which the film treats men - as single-minded, women beating, sex obsessed ogres who descend into savagery the instant the woman leaves the house - is more than a little caricatured.  What is perhaps more surprising is that the women characters are also pretty grotesquely stereotyped, particularly the Algerian immigrants.   Despite this, director Coline Serreau does explore some important social themes - notably the way in which women are still abused and put down in our society - with some sensitivity and impact, albeit much less effectively than she might had the characters been less two-dimensional.

The first of half of the film is particularly good and shows Serreau at her best as a director.   Catherine Frot gives an engaging and convincing performance as a woman who finally manages to break away from her husband's dominance and take charge of her life, to follow the dictates of her heart, not those of some suit-wearing Neanderthal.   The abrupt, pacey editing creates an impression of a life thrown into turmoil as Hélène makes her break for freedom, at the expense of her totally inadequate husband and son, who clearly need her far more than she needs them.

Things go horribly wrong towards the middle of the film at the point where Noémie (well played by Rachida Brakni) makes a miraculous recovery and reveals her past life - a risibly implausible story that belongs to a third rate thriller of the 1960s, related at such a pace that the spectator can hardly keep up, and which gets more and more absurd with every passing second.  After this, the film seems to lose both its momentum and any sense of credibility; it just degenerates into a chaotic, yet still mildly entertaining, farce, accumulating clichés and stereotypes in a desperate attempt to keep up the pace.

Whilst Chaosdoes have its appeal - a distinctive visual and narrative style, some good performances and plenty of easy laughs - it lacks the maturity and restraint of some of Coline Serreau's other work (Romuald et Juliette (1989), Saint-Jacques... La Mecque (2005)).  Rather than an effective polemic on the way contemporary society regards women, it ends up feeling like a confused and rather loud feminist rant, which may be entertaining for some viewers, but also probably very off-putting for others.

Film Synopsis

On their way to a dinner date one evening, Paul and Hélène, a middle class couple, witness an horrific assault on a young Arab woman.  Paul refuses to get involved, but Hélène, stricken with guilt, is compelled to visit the woman in hospital.  Leaving Paul and her teenage son Fabrice to fend for themselves, Hélène devotes herself to watching over the injured woman, an Algerian immigrant named Noémie.  After the two women manage to thwart an attempt by Noémie's aggressors to abduct her, Noémie tells Hélène her story...