LE BATTEMENT D'AILES DU PAPILLON
HAPPENSTANCE |
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Writer/Director:
Laurent Firode
Cast: Irène: Audrey Tautou; Younès: Faudel; Richard:
Eric Savin; Luc: Eric Feldman; Stéphanie: Irène Ismailoff.
Running time: 97 minutes
Year of production: 2000
Rating: Restricted (sexual situations)
Gauge: 16 & 35mm, DVD (color)
Language: French
Distributor: New Yorker Films
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“Perhaps
it’s all a bit too much, and perhaps it doesn’t add up,
but the loose ends give the picture a jaunty, improvised feeling that,
while it leads to some confusion, is ultimately part of its whimsical
charm.” A.O. Scott, The New York Times. |
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Inspired
by the concept of ultimate interconnectedness exemplified by the oft-told
anecdote that the beating of a butterfly’s wings over the Atlantic
can cause a tsunami in the Pacific, writer-director Firode fashions
a whimsical story about the unpredictable and far-reaching effects
of seemingly isolated actions. Set during the course of a single day,
the film follows the trajectories of a handful of characters whose
lives connect and career off one another like charged particles. In
the metro on her way to work, Irène meets a woman who predicts
that today she’ll meet the love of her life. Irène exchanges
shy glances with Younès, the young man sitting across from
her, but the pair are separated when she gets off the train. Numerous
apparently random events involving (among others) a bum, a security
guard, a pathological liar, his mother and his grandmother, a barfly,
an art student, an unfaithful husband, his wife, his mistress and
his mistress’ parents, as well as a pigeon, a cockroach, and
a pebble, all conspire to bring Irène and Younès together
again by the end. Although the conceit appears labored, in fact the
film treats its subject in a breezy, good-humored way, with the accumulation
of detail serving to develop, rather than diminish, its characters.
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| PHOTO Courtesy
of Lot 47 Films |
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