Happenstance

Starring:Nor-eddin Abboud, Nathalie BesanÃ§on, Lily Boulogne, FrÃ©dÃ©ric Bouraly, Franck Bussi, Antoine Coesens, Faudel, Eric Feldman (II), IrÃ¨ne IsmaÃ¯loff, Husky Kihal, Manu Layotte, Lysiane Meis, Gilbert Robin, Louison Roblin, Eric Savin, SaÃ¯d Serrari, Audrey Tautou, Marina TomÃ©, FÃ©licitÃ© Wouassi
Studio: New Yorker Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Audrey Tautou (star of Amélie) shimmers like a born movie star in Happenstance. A woman on the morning train tells Tautou that the full moon will lead her to her soulmate; from there, Happenstance follows a marvelous interlocking series of events, in which little things (like whether or not a young museum guard eats a piece of chocolate) affect bigger ones (like whether or not an adulterous husband will tell his wife the truth). The numerous characters intersect with each other's lives, creating a web of coincidences that finally catches Tautou like a hapless fly. This could have been cloying and forced, but the writing and directing are so deft and subtle that the coincidences of Happenstance feel natural and compelling. A sweet and hopeful movie, with excellent performance all around, but Tautou's wide-open eyes leap out of her every scene, hypnotic and charming. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Happenstance.......2007-06-06

Good, nice, okay - an enjoyable albeit rather mediocre film. Playing on the idea of "six degrees of separation" a sales clerk and a barrista fall in love.

My all-time favorite romantic comedy.......2007-05-17

Fun, fun, fun, 'til your Daddy takes the re-mote away.

It's clever, funny, *very* romantic (as only the French can be), and full of twists and turns. It's one of those movies that one thinks about and enjoys long after watching it.

I had to buy it so I could watch it over and over.

Too tedious with no payoff.......2007-01-20

Audrey Tautou hardly says three words in this movie even though she is prominently featured on the cover. The movie is obliquely about her character, but she is on screen for ten minutes or so. It reminded me of a cross between Amelie and the Richard Linklater movie Slacker, but with none of the charm of the former and none of the character of the latter. Most of the characters are losers, but instead of being loveable, interesting losers, you keep hoping that one or more of them will get hit by a bus or something. The only one to root for is Audrey Tautou, but her fate is decided by some idiot throwing stones at a statue in a park, so there's no point in hoping.

Most importantly: while this movie is rated R, it is for a pointless scene of unflattering full frontal nudity of a man, and the actresses who would have been quite appealing in some stage of dishabille remain fully clothed. That alone is reason to get your money back.

Butterfly Wings mounted on a Science Fair Project.......2006-07-27

Witty. Quirky. Genuine. Surreal. Butterfly wings? One could ask what all of these words best describe, and some (those in fuse with the international film community) may quickly say Happenstance, but others may jump aboard the more American train and immediately yell, The Butterfly Effect. Strangely, I would be one of those screaming for that sci-fi Kutcher film mainly because none of those words that I initially mentioned at the start of this paragraph accurately depicts the Tautou feature that I witnessed. Sure, we all loved her in Amelie and thought she was the daughter of Jesus in The Da Vinci Code, but in this film first-time director (of a feature film at least) Laurent Firode doesn't give Tautou the opportunity to shine. Sadly, he gives nobody the opportunity to really demonstrate themselves because he is too delicately caught up in the moments of "random chance" to bring this film to anything but just a shimmer (never a true boil). Firode has ample, and I use "ample" as a small word, moments throughout this film where he could have built us a fantastical story, a genuinely whimsical fairy-tale of love and coincidence, but instead he fell face-first into a mud-bucket of chaotic intertwining that overwhelmed us with inconsistent characters and a story that left us gasping for less.

Tautou's beautiful face adorns the cover of this box, but do not be so taken immediately as I did in assuming that this was going to be another monumental journey into Tautou's French cinema. Tautou is in this film, do not get me wrong, but one could argue that she is not at the center of this story. Firode's job is to create a series of random events that eventually will lead to an audience friendly (albeit confusing) ending which exemplifies that meaning of refreshing "melodrama". He utterly, utterly fails. Firode fails by giving us, the audience, too many characters. With too many characters he gives us too many random interventions, and by the end you don't really care who is who, or what is what, or how is how; your main focus happens to be centered solely on the ending credits and the time destination of their arrival. Tautou could have saved this film from the disaster it was if only Firode would have given her the center. Alas, he did not, but attempted to seemingly force a group of 12 through a theoretical film hole about the size of a penny. It just didn't work and we were left with a jam in which we were completely stuck.

Firode fails because he focus' so intently on the minor details that, for one of those rare film occurrences, he actually forgets the central focus. I can say that there was no defined central focus to Happenstance. In the beginning he attempts to create one with our two supposed main characters discovering that they share the same birthday and their horoscope promises love by the moonlight, but we never go back to that throughout the film. Instead, again, we are bombarded with new characters, stuffy scenes, and meaningless drivel obviously chosen to direct us away from an actual story and more into a world full of "ifs, ands, and buts". I couldn't do it. I couldn't believe this film. Writer Firode (yes, the same guy directing this garbage) uses a technique so primitive in this film that I immediately felt like ending it immediately. He must have been assuming that many of us were incapable of actually following the storyline (or the scientific premise) because he grabs the aid of a homeless person to actually fill in the respective blanks. I didn't need this, nor do I think Firode needed to belittle his audience in this matter. While there were other elements that just didn't seem to work for me at all (again, felt like a jumbled Parisian collage of shredded paper), this was the icing on the cake. I don't need my hand held through films.

I will give this film one star for credit. This is a rather difficult genre to master successfully. Time travel films are especially hard because of the innumerable amounts of possibilities that are never accounted for, but with Happenstance it works because Firode semi-explores the different avenues. While I will counter with saying that he does not do it well, it did make for at least five full minutes of enjoyment. I liked where Firode was headed with this film, he had a genuinely diagramed story, but the final execution just blew this film to shreds. Firode could have saved this film if he would have strengthened his characters, while lightening up his premise and story. I think my overall mood of this film would have changed if just these two simple directions were taken. Oh, how I only wish I could time travel back to the production of this film to show Firode the errors of his ways.

Overall, for the first time (and probably last), this was a Tautou film that I must say utterly disappointed me. From the choppy opening to the apathetic ending, I just felt that Happenstance failed due to Firode's leadership and horrid marketing. Marketing is something that I didn't mention before, but why would anyone purchase this film thinking that it was an Amelie 2 (per the title released in Hong Kong), and why would you place Tautou squarely on the cover knowing full well that she wasn't carrying this film at all. I believe that from the first minute that passed on my DVD player, this film was in shambles. While I will applaud his subject, everything else was well below the level of mediocrity. I cannot suggest this film to anyone.

Grade: * out of *****

Enjoyable movie, but not great.......2005-05-28

First off, i have to put up my dukes to the dude who said this movie was like a funny, or "happy" Magnolia. I don't know how in the world you can make such an impression, this doesn't resemble Magnolia in any way except that unknown people are related in the end. Don't get the wrong impression folks. Anyways to get to the movie, it didn't live up to what i guess i was expecting. The movie sounds better than it is, but! but! it is still mildly enchanting, making you tilt your end in the end and go, "uh... interesting." It's by no means awful, meaning i'd watch it countless more times if the opportunities presented themselves, but it is neither a classic movie. The writing is amazing, but the way they sometimes act it across can be a little bit of a "let's go already". i'd still say see it, it's good, interesting destiny sort of interest.

Le Battement D'ailes du Papillon / Happenstance (French Language With Optional English Sub-Titles)

Average customer rating:

Fate and karma

Le Battement D'ailes du Papillon / Happenstance (French Language With Optional English Sub-Titles)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000A35MJG

Product Description

Chance, volition, and the large effects of tiny causes swirl through Paris on a single day. A clerk born 11 March 1977 hears her horoscope on the way to work: today she'll meet her true love, but she must be patient. Before the day ends under a full moon, twenty lives intersect time and again in unpredictable, connected ways: a jilted lover holds a souvenir pebble, a stolen coffee maker looks suspicious at a Metro stop, a yellow rain slicker is passed on as a gift, lettuce causes a bicycle accident, a leaf betrays an habitual liar who's just told the truth, and an Algerian waiter, also born 11 March 1977, sees a bug cross a tablecloth. Magical sand from the Sahara is in the air.

Customer Reviews:

Fate and karma.......2005-10-19

You know the old saying about the "butterfly effect," that the beating of a butterfly's wings can set off a storm over the Amazon jungle. That idea is half the basis of "Happenstance" (original title: "Le Battement d'ailes du papillon" -- more on butterflies), a sweet little French bit of froth that will leave you warm and fuzzy.

Irène (Audrey Tautou) is on the subway to her job when a woman doing surveys tell her the horoscope: She will meet her true love that day. The handsome young man, Younès (Faudel) who sees her, has the same birthday and same horoscope. Coincidence? There is no such thing in this film. Elsewhere, an indecisive man promises his mistress Elsa that he will tell his wife that he wants a divorce.

Fallen leaves, tossed stones, discarded sneakers, a mugger's yellow jacket, heads of lettuce, Algerian sand, uneaten chocolates and nose injuries all affect Irène and the people who brush by her in everyday life. After the end of that fateful day, nobody's life will be quite the same. Some people will come home, some will make break up, some will miss dates, and some will live happily ever after.

"Sliding Doors" was a shaky but interesting romantic comedy, and "Run Lola Run" was frenetic and full of visual gimmicks. But the slower-paced, more forthright "Happenstance" may be the most interesting look at how little things can change our lives -- it's not just one person's life, with a few people affected around him or her. Instead, it's a dozen or so, whose lives change for better or worse because of little things.

What little things? A head of lettuce falls off a truck and causes a bike crash. A pebble fails to get through a modern sculpture, causing a man to lie to his mistress. A thousand little innocent events cause major changes in people's lives. But above the idea of chaos theory is the concept of fate and karma: You know that forces are slowly driving Irène and her soulmate together. A few bad things may happen to the two future lovers along the way, but they are just stepping stones.

Cinematography is nothing special, but nice and somehow makes Paris look like more than a postcard, with the subways, grubby side streets and sparkling night skies. The intricate script is bound to trip itself up a few times. A couple of storylines are left mildly unresolved. And perhaps the most intriguing character -- the enigmatic "Destiny Man", who seems to be all-knowing -- appears once and then never again. How does he know other people's plans and secrets? We're never told. (Maybe the guy is supposed to be God)

Tautou displays a different kind of acting from the charming "Amelie." Here, she's more downbeat and outspoken, but gradually softens as she comes to realize that things don't happen purely by accident. Faudel is a good counterpart to Tautou, quiet and unassuming, but quite sweet. The dozens of supporting actors are given less to do, but are charming too.

Do you believe in fate and true love, that somehow you'll be drawn together with your soulmate, the one meant specially for you? If you do (even a little bit), then "Happenstance" will charm you.

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