CLEMENTINE'S REVIEWS

30th September 2009
The Beating of Butterfly's Wings (2000)

Director: Laurent Firode
Writers: Laurent Firode
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Faudel, Eric Savin, Nathalie Besançon, Lysiane Mei, Irène Ismaïloff, Eric Feldman, Frédéric Bouraly, Franck Bussi, Marina Tomé

Two strangers on the train are read their horoscope - today they will meet their true love. How will a series of random events of people weaving themselves in and out of their lives allow their paths to cross again?

French cinema is notoriously realistic and depressing. Or is it the fact it successfully recreates the boredom, pain and disappointments of real life that make us feel so sad? That's why it seems depressing: because it's not a neat beautiful bouquet of happiness, nor a pleasant escape from reality. Fortunately, The Beating of Butterfly's Wings is a fun fusion of ennui and whimsy. The main concept is the effect of the beating of butterfly's wings creating a whole chain of events.

Our attractive leads are quiet, introverted souls meandering through their unhappy lives. Audrey Tautou's Irène is a sales clerk for electronic appliances. She's the very picture of the sad-without-knowing-why twenty-something year old, her roommate too self-involved to be a good friend. Irène has no passion or ambition, no romanticism in her life and she's getting bitter. Younès (Faudel) is equally directionless, he goes with the flow, is simply kind, and feels like he's waiting for something, he just doesn't know what. Orbiting around them are a dozen other lives tangled up with the concept of fate: a miserable husband with a mistress, who gambles his decisions on random events; a young man so paralysed by his inaction he compulsively lies in an attempt to create the life he isn't living; Irène 's roommate who believes fate may have reunited her with an old lover; a barman who believes in a karmic balance in everything; a recruiter with a bizarre method of predicting the future.

This film is so incredibly whimsical, hilarious and charmingly chaotic. I was gripped with glee at some of the moments where the impression of fate's action clutched at the characters with such hopeful or hopeless finality so ridiculously human. The whole ensemble is quite fun, though there are some weak links in the acting. Some may find the gimmicky concept and comedic situations too out-there or trite, but I feel it achieves exactly what it set out to do with a great sense of fun.

Verdict: Like a more whimsical, chaotic French 'Love Actually'.