King Louis XIV of France assigns the design and construction of the Gardens of Versailles to his head landscape architect André Le Nôtre. Already overwhelmed, managing numerous large-scale projects, Le Nôtre interviews several other landscape designers to whom he might be able to delegate some of the work. One of the candidates is Sabine de Barra, who is that rare thing in the 17th century: an independent professional woman.
When Sabine arrives on the palace grounds for her interview, she pauses to move a potted plant in the courtyard. André observes this from a window, and asks her, during the interview, if she prizes order in design. Sabine affirms her respect for landscape order, but when pressed suggests that she would rather create something uniquely French than follow classical and Renaissance styles. André reminds her that everything he has built and designed follows order. Sabine apologizes and sincerely expresses admiration for him and his work. André abruptly shows her the door; she leaves disheartened.
André mulls over the candidates, under pressure to please the King. His assistant judiciously re-presents Madame de Barra's designs to him, prompting André to reconsider them.
André surprises Sabine at her home that evening, and after admiring her seemingly untamed but magical garden, assigns to her the outdoor bosquet ballroom project at Versailles, which combines fountains and landscaping. His original plans require a costly fresh water supply; Sabine suggests continuously recycling water through the fountains using a reservoir. As work begins on her design, the original workmen make little progress; however, Sabine is offered another, better crew by one of her former competitors, and construction begins in earnest.
Queen Maria Theresa dies suddenly. Sabine and André start a quiet, loving friendship, mutually attracted but not acting on their feelings due to André's marriage and Sabine and André's professional relationship. André is deeply moved by Sabine's passion and honesty.
Stunned at the loss of his wife, the King takes refuge in the gardens at the Château de Marly, among the pear trees. Sabine finds him there, initially mistaking him for the gardener with whom she had hoped to trade some plants. The King enjoys her warmth and forthrightness, and once she recognizes him, they continue their conversation as equals. He invites her to travel with him to the Palace of Fontainebleau. Sabine describes André to the king as "the most complete person I know."
André has been enduring his wife Françoise's infidelities; Françoise insists that the key to his success is her relationships and influence at court. When she senses his interest in Sabine and warns him against an affair, he quotes to her her own words about their right to seek comfort elsewhere, becoming determined to pursue a relationship with Sabine.
Back at the Versailles garden site, Françoise confronts Sabine, and states that André's interest in her is transient and won't last. Later that night, Françoise's lover, at her request, opens the reservoir's sluice gates during a powerful storm, flooding the worksite and destroying much of the earthworks. Sabine nearly drowns trying to close it, but André arrives in time to rescue her. The next morning, she works vigorously to mend the damage. That same day, the King visits the worksite, assesses the damaged project skeptically, but allows it to proceed. Afterwards, André finds Françoise's glove there. Realizing she is behind the sabotage, he confronts her with the glove and effectively ends their relationship.
Sabine is introduced around court by the Duc de Lauzun and the King's mistress, the Marquise de Montespan. Once the Marquise and her female courtiers discover that Sabine is widowed and has also lost her 6-year-old daughter, they share their own losses and welcome her into their company.
The Marquise formally presents Sabine to the King when he arrives. Sabine offers him a Four Seasons rose — the same found in the garden where they had met. Conversing about the nature of roses and their life cycle, beauty, hardships, and death, Sabine metaphorically defends Madame de Montespan, who has begun to lose the King's favor. Louis is again moved by Sabine's observations. "A wise rose," he calls her, and takes her arm so that they may walk and talk further.
André waits for Sabine outside her home that night, and they finally make love. In the morning, André finds himself alone in bed; Sabine is upstairs, traumatized by a recurring flashback of the day her daughter and husband died: prior to taking their daughter with him on a day trip, her husband revealed to Sabine that he had a mistress. Sabine saw that the carriage had a faulty wheel, learned from the footman that they were actually going to his mistress's, not on a business trip, and racing after them, tried to stop the carriage. It veered off track, toppling down a steep hill and killing both father and daughter.
André finds Sabine mid-flashback, and convinces her to stop blaming herself for their deaths, calming her down. She asks him what will happen with his wife, and he says their marriage is over. "And us?" Sabine asks. "We will shape each other," replies André.
At the inauguration of Sabine's completed bosquet garden, the King and his court arrive and dance to the music of a hidden orchestra, as the fountains send water coursing down the tiers around the outdoor ballroom floor. It is clear that the garden design is a success, and the king is well pleased. After Sabine dances with the King, she and André join hands and leave to walk into the forest together. The camera pulls slowly back and above the entire grounds of Versailles, revealing the enormous sweep of its grandeur.
Production began in March 2013. Producer Zygi Kamasa of Lionsgate said: "We are delighted to be working with the best of British actors and directors like Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman as we move forward in doubling our investment in British films in 2014."[7] Rickman said: "The film is not just frills at the wrists and collars. It's about people getting their hands dirty and building something in order to entertain the other world they serve. It's about how one world maintains the other, often at the cost of women."[8]
On 17 January 2013, it was announced that Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts had been cast in the lead roles.[9] Rickman had Winslet in mind for the lead role of Sabine de Barra and continued with her when two weeks into shooting, Winslet announced that she was pregnant.[10] In addition to director, Rickman took the role of King Louis XIV. He explained that "the only way I could do it was because in a way, he's like a director, Louis, so you kind of keep the same expression on your face. As a director, you see everything somehow. It's like a huge all-encompassing eye that sees everything, and it's able to cherry pick; ‘Move that,’ ‘Don't do that,’ ‘Do it this way,’ ‘Change this colour.’ And I don't know where that comes from, but it does, once you're given the job, and I have a feeling Louis probably would've been a great film director."[11]
According to Rickman, filming "wasn't easy, though; throwing Kate into freezing water at 1 a.m., the carriage crash, scenes with 80 extras, tight schedules in venues like Blenheim Palace. It's a constant tap dance between control and freedom and of course the budget guides everything."[8]
Historical accuracy
Some of the characters are fictional, including Kate Winslet's Sabine. The film is set in 1682, but André Le Nôtre began work at Versailles in 1661. Le Nôtre was nearly seventy in 1682, twice the age he appears to be as portrayed by Schoenaerts.[16] A garden much like that in the film exists at Versailles, the Salle de Bal or Bosquet de la Salle-de-Bal (the Forest Ballroom).[16]
Music
A Little Chaos: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
A Little Chaos: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2015)
The soundtrack was composed by Peter Gregson. It was the first feature film for Gregson, who previously composed music for a 2014 short film Every Quiet Moment.[1]Veigar Margeirsson's 2008 composition "Rise above" was used in the trailer of the film but was not part of soundtrack album,[18] which was released by Milan Records on 16 April 2015.[17]
BBC Films revealed footage as part of their Sizzle Showreel 2013 on 25 November 2013.[19] First stills of Kate Winslet were released on 22 July 2014 with the announcement of film's premiere at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.[20] Three images from the film featuring Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Jennifer Ehle were released on 27 August 2014.[21] A scene from the film featuring Winslet and Rickman was revealed on 9 September 2014.[11] The full-length official trailer was revealed on 19 December 2014.[22][23] The first poster and another trailer were released on 20 January 2015.[24] On 11 June 2015, another scene from the film featuring Stanley Tucci was released.[25]
It was initially set for a theatrical release on 27 March 2015 in the United States[5] but was later pulled out.[33]Focus Features finally gave the film a simultaneous theatrical and VOD release in United States on 26 June 2015.[34]
Reception
Box office
As of July 2015, the film has been opened in fourteen territories including Australia and UK and had grossed $10,084,623 worldwide.[3][4]
The film received mixed reviews from critics, with the cast highly praised. As of June 2020[update], the film holds a 48% approval rating on review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, based on 92 reviews with an average score of 5.41/10. The site's consensus states that "Stylish and well-acted without ever living up to its dramatic potential, A Little Chaos is shouldered by the impressive efforts of a talented cast."[35] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds an average score of 51, based on 21 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[36]
Catherine Shoard of The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars and wrote that "Winslet manages emotional honesty within anachronistic confines, and Schoenaerts escapes with dignity."[37] Mark Adams in his review for Screen International said, "the film is a gracefully made delight, replete with lush costumes, fruity performances, love amongst the flowerbeds and even a little mild peril. Yes it lacks real dramatic edge and may be seen as a typical British period costume film, but it is also a classily made pleasure that will delight its target audience."[38] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter felt that "This decently acted film is agreeable entertainment, even if it works better on a scene by scene basis than in terms of overall flow."[39] Tim Robey in writing for The Telegraph said in his review: "If you see only one film about 17th-century French landscape gardening this year, it probably ought to be A Little Chaos, a heaving bouquet of a picture."[40]
David Sexton of the London Evening Standard gave the film a negative review, saying that "Kate Winslet charms as a gardener at the Court of Louis XIV, but it's not enough to keep this inauthentic piece from wilting."[41] Dennis Harvey of Variety criticised the film, calling it "all too tidy as it imposes a predictable, pat modern sensibility on a most unconvincing depiction of late 17th-century French aristocratic life."[42] Kaleem Aftab of The Independent gave the film two out of five stars, noting that while the performances were exceptional, the talents of the players were wasted. He wrote that "it all starts off so promisingly" and praised the camera work and language, but found it quickly fails as "a melancholic look at grief" where "at least four different genres [clash] against each other, occasionally in the same scene" and "the romance seems to take place off-screen." He concluded: "There was a 17-year gap between Rickman's first and second film and on this evidence it's easy to see why. While he can get performances out of the actors, he lacks command of pacing and plot."[43]
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