• Rating:
The Palace of Versailles boasts 2,300 rooms and, originally, had no sewage system and no bathrooms. During peak periods, with courtiers, soldiers, and staff, it could accommodate up to 10,000 people, which made attending to physiological needs a creative experience, with only chamber pots and the gardens available. However, films set in this era often overlook this detail in favor of lavish sets.
If Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette turns Versailles into a glamorous and rock paradise, A Little Chaos at least gets its hands a little dirty – literally. The film follows the construction of the gardens of Versailles (the bathrooms were yet to come) mixing real and imaginary characters. André Le Nôtre, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, was the architect commissioned with the work, while Kate Winslet is Sabine de Barra, in the fictional but almost believable role of a landscaper forced to work due to early widowhood.
Without being overly sentimental, the film weaves the construction of part of the gardens with the budding relationship between André and Sabine. Among the inevitable obstacles is Madame Le Nôtre, played by Helen McCroy, better known as Polly in Peaky Blinders. Despite her carefree transgressions, Madame Le Nôtre is jealous and vindictive, ready for well-calculated sabotage. Sabine's painful past also hinders the love story, revealing itself in a touching but perhaps too melodramatic and anachronistic scene, in which Sabine reacts more like a woman of our times than a lady of the 17th century.
Alan Rickman, who left us prematurely, in his second and last directorial role, plays a regal but tired Louis XIV, a Sun King overshadowed by clouds, seeking temporary relief from his role.
The film stumbles here and there into the pathetic, but it works due to the interaction between the characters and a cinematography that highlights the laborious effort: mud, debris, and untamable nature counterbalance the utopia of perfect order. The ending, shot in the real Bosquet de la Salle de Bal of Versailles, closes the circle: chaos can be designed, but never fully tamed. In this context, the Italian title Le Regole del Caos – apart from being an oxymoron – almost sounds like the opposite of the original.
Loading comments slowly
