Chaos and Desire (2002)
"La turbulence des fluides" (original title)

A seismologist investigates the mysterious cessation of the tides near her Quebec home town.

Director:

Manon Briand

Writer:

Manon Briand

Stars:

Pascale Bussières, Julie Gayet, Jean-Nicolas Verreault

2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pascale Bussières	...	Alice Bradley
Julie Gayet	...	Catherine Rolland
Jean-Nicolas Verreault	...	Marc Vandal
Geneviève Bujold	...	Colette Lasalle
Norman Helms	...	Michel
Vincent Bilodeau	...	Simon Deslandes
Gabriel Arcand	...	L'éditeur
Jean-Pierre Ronfard	...	Hanspeter
Stephen Chang	...	Hijikata
Peter Kosaka	...	Mori
Tsuyu Shimizu	...	Yoko
Luc Proulx	...	Réal
Ji-yan Seguin	...	Camille
Denise Dubois	...	Madame Guillet
Suzanne Garceau	...	Soeur Berthe

Storyline

Seismologist Alice Bradley is despatched to her home town of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, to investigate why the tides have stopped flowing there. She is reunited with an old college friend, reporter Catherine Rolland, and meets roguish pilot Marc Vandal. It soon becomes apparent that the problems with the tide coincided with a variety of odd behaviour amongst the Baie-Comeau residents, and Alice gradually realises that the solution to the mystery may be stranger than she ever anticipated.

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Plot Keywords:

dead wife | earthquake | lesbian | ocean | airplane accident

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Details

Country:

Canada France

Language:

French English Japanese

Release Date:

11 December 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

Chaos and Desire

Filming Locations:

Baie-Comeau, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

€7,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Max Films Productions, EuropaCorp

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min 112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Helicopter rotor visible in the top left corner of the screen in one shot of Marc's plane flying over the forest, towards the beginning of the movie.

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Connections

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Lovely Head"
Written by Goldfrapp
Performed by Goldfrapp

User Reviews

A warm and humorous film with a powerful resolution

In the warm and humorous Quebecois film, Chaos and Desire, shown at last year's Vancouver Film Festival, Alice Bradley, played by the lovely Pascale Bussieres, is a seismologist working in Japan studying the factors that can predict earthquakes. When the tides mysteriously stop flowing on the St. Lawrence River in her hometown of Baie Comeau, she returns to investigate and comes up against the bizarre behavior of local residents. In one instance, a little Chinese girl (Ji-Yan Séguin) sleepwalks every night at the exact same time. In others, a woman chops down every tree in her front yard, and the phone number of a fire-fighting pilot named Marc Vandal (Jean-Nicolas Verreault) has been ripped out of every phone book in town.

Running from a troubled past and consumed by loneliness, Alice must now deal not only with the problem of the tides but with a growing involvement with Vandal and the not so subtle advances of her journalist friend Catherine (Julie Gayet). When Alice uncovers the film's central mystery, the presumed drowning of Vandal's wife, the investigation turns away from science to the world of spirit and achieves a resolution of surprising power.