'Chaos' is a very surprising movie from many points of view. Director Coline Serreau drives a quite complex story, changes pace and uses different techniques all along the film, and so succeeds to keep the interest at pick for the whole duration of the movie.
It starts like a bourgeois drama - a couple in Paris refuses to help a young girl attacked by a gang of criminals. He is a total jerk, as are the majority of the male characters in the movie, but the wife followed by remorse searches for the young girl in the hospital and basically saves her life and supports her in the recovery process. The psychological drama in the first part of the film turns into a sordid gang story later with almost Terentinesque touches when we learn that the young prostitute is followed by her employers who are ready to bring her back at any price and not only for her services.
Well filmed and acted, with a remarkable performance from Rachida Brakni in the principal role the film succeeds to be convincing despite its very sharp and maybe too explicit social stands. The main character is a victim of sexual exploitation by men, as well as of oppression as a young woman in her family of Algerian origin and the authors make no secret where the guilt lies. The cinema qualities of the film avoid turning it into a manifest on screen and by providing an enjoyable and interesting film experience the message makes it better to the viewers.
It starts like a bourgeois drama - a couple in Paris refuses to help a young girl attacked by a gang of criminals. He is a total jerk, as are the majority of the male characters in the movie, but the wife followed by remorse searches for the young girl in the hospital and basically saves her life and supports her in the recovery process. The psychological drama in the first part of the film turns into a sordid gang story later with almost Terentinesque touches when we learn that the young prostitute is followed by her employers who are ready to bring her back at any price and not only for her services.
Well filmed and acted, with a remarkable performance from Rachida Brakni in the principal role the film succeeds to be convincing despite its very sharp and maybe too explicit social stands. The main character is a victim of sexual exploitation by men, as well as of oppression as a young woman in her family of Algerian origin and the authors make no secret where the guilt lies. The cinema qualities of the film avoid turning it into a manifest on screen and by providing an enjoyable and interesting film experience the message makes it better to the viewers.