FauxNixon

Writer/director Laurent Firode’s 2000 film Happenstance (Le Battement d’ailes du papillon) is a fabulous French-language romantic comedy starring Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite actresses, as Irene, the leading character. It is a romantic comedy that uses its simplicity to showcase the elements of Chaos Theory or the Butterfly Effect, where one action leads to a series of progressively larger actions so that, for example a butterfly in Indonesia can cause a hurricane in Florida.

On a subway, a clerk named Irene has her fortune told by a kindly old woman as she is seated by two strangers. The horoscope is for her birthday, which is March 11, 1977, and the old woman tells her that today is the day during which she will meet her true love.

Irene gets off on the next stop and the man who had been seated next to the old woman exclaims to her that that is also his birthday and the old woman confirms that this means his horoscope is the same. The young man looks in bewilderment as the doors have closed on the subway car and he can only watch as Irene walks away.

Throughout the course of the day easily more than a dozen different small, simple events happen which cause major changes to their environments. A head of lettuce, for example, falls off of a truck and causes a major car accident. An old woman attempts to return a defective coffee maker to the store, but they will not accept it, so she gives in and leaves the store with it. Overhearing the conversation a man decides that this is completely unacceptable and steals a coffee maker, which he delivers to the woman in the street apologizing on the store’s behalf.

Before the day is through two very similar facial wound dressings will too make their simple existence perform an extraordinary thing by bringing two people back together. It is a whimsical movie filled with romance and comedy, though the romance and the comedy are typically separated so I’m hesitant to call this a romantic comedy.

It is a simple French film featuring a fantastic actress and a great writer/director and if you have access to do so, see it. Happenstance will brighten your day and may make you wonder about the simple things that happen to you and what major effects they may have on others later on.