CHAOS. Filmmakers. Costume Designer Original Score Production Manager Assistant Director Script Supervisor Casting

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2 CHAOS Filmmakers Directed by Written by Producer Line Producer Director of Photography Production Designer Film Editor Sound Costume Designer Original Score Production Manager Assistant Director Script Supervisor Casting 2 nd Unit Camera Camera Assistant Boon Operator Make-up Artist Key Hair Artist Props Supervisor Set Dresser Unit Manager Set Decorator Locations Stunt Supervisor Stunt People Foley Editor Sitcom crew Director 1 st Assistant Director COLINE SERREAU COLINE SERREAU ALAIN SARDE CHRISTINE GOZLAN JEAN-FRANÇOIS ROBIN, A.F.C. MICHÈLE ABBE CATHERINE RENAULT PIERRE LORRAIN MURIEL MOREAU JÖEL RANGON KAREN SERREAU LUDOVIC NAVARRE ALAIN CENTONZE DOMINIQUE FURGÉ PILAR BILLIET BRUNO LEVY OLIVIER CARBONE DAN BERTHIER PIERRIC GANTELMI D ILLE DAMIEN TESSANDIER MARTIN BOISSAU KAATJE VAN DAMME GERALD PORTENANT MICHEL GRIMAUD CATHERINE WERNER SCHMIT JEAN-PIERRE CHEVALLIER MARC SAUSSET NICOLAS FAGARD GILLES CONSEIL EMILIE JUMEAUX CLAIRE LEROY JONATHAN LIEBLING SAMUEL TASINAJE BÉRANGÈRE GROS

3 CHAOS Cast Hélène Paul Noémie/Malika Mamie Fabrice Touki Florence Charlotte Marsat Pali Young cop Tarek Zora Blanchet Nicole Barman 1 st guy Zoriza Henri Sitcom cast CATHERINE FROT VINCENT LINDON RACHIDA BRAKNI LINE RENAUD AURÉLIEN WIIK IVAN FRANEK CHLOÉ LAMBERT MARIE DENARNAUD MICHEL LAGUEYRIE WOJTEK PSZONIAK ERIC POULAIN OMAR-ECHÉRIFF ATTALAH HAJAR NOUMA JEAN-MARC STEHLÉ LÉA DRUCKER NICOLAS SERREAU JEAN-LOUP MICHOU JULIE DURAND SIMON BAKHOUCHE DELPHINE BIBET SYLVIE RABOUTET NICOLAS LARTIGUE A LES FILMS ALAIN SARDE FRANCE 2 CINEMA ENILOC co-production With the participation of CANAL + A NEW YORKER FILMS RELEASE France, 2001 In French with English subtitles 109 minutes, Color 1:66, Dolby SRD

4 SYNOPSIS Hélène and Paul are a bourgeois French couple who are constantly racing through the day to keep up with all of their obligations, barely taking the time to look at each other. As they are rushing off to an engagement, Paul and Hélène witness Malika, a young prostitute, being violently attacked by a group of men just outside of their car. As Malika is beaten and left for dead, Paul locks the doors and speeds off. Malika ends up hospitalized and in a coma. The following morning, Hélène is overwhelmed by guilt and decides to locate the woman she saw victimized. She finds Malika in the hospital and becomes determined to care for the young woman. Helene puts all of her obligations aside to be with Malika and help her recover. While caring for her, Hélène becomes aware that the pimps who attacked Malika refuse to leave her alone. So, she makes herself responsible, not only for restoring Malika s health, but also maintaining her safety. As she nurses Malika through her recovery, Hélène realizes that her life has been changed forever. She can never return to her selfish husband and son. She belongs with Malika, who desperately needs her, as the criminals who beat her have no intention of letting her live. With Hélène gone, her husband Paul is revealed as being totally helpless, unable to complete even the simplest of household tasks. Their hypocritical teenage son Fabrice is a mirror image of his Dad, and soon gets into hot water with both his fiancée and his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Malika tells Hélène her shocking history. She ran away from her family after her father sold her to an Algerian businessman. Homeless, living on the streets, she was turned into a sex slave by a vicious criminal organization, using the name Noémie. But Malika has worked out an elaborate plot to get both her freedom and her revenge, and she enlists Hélène to aid her * * *

5 COLINE SERREAU INTERVIEW Many different themes intervene in CHAOS, as they do in most of your movies. What was your starting point? Coline Serreau: Rebirth is the film s main theme. Someone, in this instance Malika the heroine played by Rachida Brakni, dies or is left for dead. Then, she is reborn. I m always amazed by humanity s ability to emerge intact from the toughest situations, to be reborn. Malika is not the only one to experience this kind of rebirth... C. S: Hélène, played by Catherine Frot, is reborn also since she goes out of her way to save Malika, having initially watched her being attacked without intervening. In doing so, she comes out of herself and begins to wonder about her life. And then, there is Paul, Hélène s husband, played by Vincent Lindon, a man who seems devoid of all humanity. He has become a robot, shut from the world and other people. Yes, almost all the characters are in rebirth. Like after a moment of huge chaos. Which brings us to the title? C. S: Chaos is the natural state of the world before there is an organization. Death before birth. Chaos is impregnated with hope since it prefigures rebirth. (One of the themes) of the movie is prostitution. In writing Malika s story, where you thinking of the young prostitute from Eastern Europe whose body was found on waste ground last year? C. S: I knew Genka. Not personally, but on the way to the Ecole du Cirque, I often passed by her. Of course, she was in my thoughts. The trade in women from poor countries is a vast phenomenon, which apparently offends no one. I have spoken to officers who police areas where there are a lot of prostitutes. They re involved in damage limitation. They can t actually do anything about it. The government has taken no initiative to stop the trade in woman. I see so many pimps every day. You could arrest them by the dozen. But no one s doing anything. It s as if the men in power allow a reserve of sex slaves to exist for the benefit of their compatriots. And maybe for themselves? What about these places where the girls are taught to obey? C. S: There are a lot of them. Everyone knows that. I didn t make everything up. Even so, the film just offers a glimpse of the reality. You just hear a couple of screams. The truth is terrifying.

6 Malika is an exception. She gets out of the business like the heroine of a fairy tale. What of the others? C. S: It s anything but a fairy tale. Malika has brilliantly analyzed the system and has decided quite simply to fuck it. She s a revolutionary trading punches with her oppressors. In reality, yes, very few girls succeed in getting out. They may have been victims of incest or come from poverty-stricken families in Eastern Europe. Frequently, they blame and hate themselves. You also deal with the question of modern relationships through the characters of Paul and Helene. The arguments are less clear-cut C. S: The relationship between men and women today is becoming increasingly complex. It is the encounter of two worlds, which rarely have anything in common except sex. I think the gulf between them is getting bigger. Before, men and women led separate lives. Their lives rarely infringed on each other, except in precise, coded circumstances. Now, men and women have the same civil, professional and economic rights or almost. We frequent the same places. We do the same jobs. Fathers are much more involved with their children and babies. And yet, it is as if our unconscious mind had not yet processed this evolution. Men are lost. They wonder what their new role is. They are caught between their own upbringing and women s demand for change. At the present time, it s very hard for men and women to find common ground. The female characters are in movement whereas the men tend to be static. It s true all the way down the line from Paul and Fabrice, his son, to Malika s little brothers, not to mention her North African father and the violent pimps C. S: I m not passing judgment. I don t give my personal opinion in my films. I don t tell the story of my life and, above all, I don t preach. I learn things, too, and I try to capture the dynamics and emotions of scenes I would like to understand and that I would like us all to understand. I feel like some kind of witness to a society in which women militate and men resist. It s not necessarily their fault: their role in society is to ensure continuity. They are not all reactionaries but, objectively, they have a reactionary role. With all these themes intertwined, the storylines are tightly knit, structuring the movie. C. S: My approach wasn t to make sure there was a bit of everything in the movie but things are so complex that it was impossible to talk about them without translating the ambivalence all the characters bring to the story. I can only operate in a dialectical way. For example, you are repulsed by the rich kid rudely telling his mother he hates fish, and a few moments later, you see that it s the same thing in a working-class family. Sexual oppression goes right through the class system. I try to show people, in an enjoyable form, what life is like and how we live it. It is also very structured because I wanted the film to be highly strung, like a thriller so that we re constantly wondering what s going to happen next, even though it s a comedy.

7 How did you come across Rachida Brakni, who is a young actress but, as Malika, carries the film with a lot of talent? C. S: We found her on almost the first day of casting. There were other very good actresses but Rachida was the obvious choice. She is studying at the Paris Conservatory and had a small part in an André Téchiné film. She has also done a lot of theatre. Like Malika, Rachida is a product of the French education system. She is an intellectual, who is also very good at sports. She is on France s track and field team. The actress, who plays her sister Zora, is a very well known break-dancer. Were Vincent Lindon and Catherine Frot automatic choices? C. S: Vincent is one of the leading actors of his generation. I enjoy working with him. He is constantly looking for something. He adores acting. He is always ready to play a horrible character as long as there is development. He has no overweening ego. At the end, his scenes are very moving. As for Catherine, her talents as an actress who can convey strong emotion justify giving her so much more than the twittering women she is sometimes asked to play. Her character has one very important quality: the ability to go the extra mile. There are scenes in which she goes beyond what she is, rushing headlong into situations she herself doesn t understand. C. S: She embodies a massive change in society. Actually, it s not things that change, it s that we no longer put up with them. Political corruption, for example. It has always existed but, now, we won t let them get away with it. That s what has changed. Prostitution is another example. Throughout history, women have been beaten and forced into prostitution. These places where they are made to obey have always existed, maybe in different forms. But now, we can t handle the idea that human beings on our doorstep, in this country, are living in slavery. What is your message? That change depends on the individual? Or on shared experience? C. S: Both. Everything moves forward together. The fate of any given character is personal, but also shared. That s what I try to show in all of my films. In Three Men and a Cradle, the three men represented individually the myths of the father, the lover and the son, but also, collectively, the evolution of the men s role in society. Sometimes, movies are in sync with changes in society; sometimes they are ahead of their time. My aim is to keep an eye on what is happening in society and to think about what progress means. I am an observer, a witness. My movies have always been political in the sense that how we order ourselves fascinates me. I am in show business, of course, but if it doesn t have room for that dimension, then I m not interested.

8 ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS COLINE SERREAU (Writer/Director) Born in 1947 in Paris, to stage director Jean-Marie Serreau and writer Genevieve Serreau, Coline grew up as a young girl surrounded by artists. After high school, she decided to follow her parent s lead and embraced an artistic life and career. While studying literature and classic and modern dance, she joined the Conservatoire de Musique and began taking trapeze lessons at Annie Fratellini s Circus School. On her way to becoming an accomplished artist, she set her sight on drama and began to study with Andreas Voutsinas (also the teacher of Jean Reno). After l Ecole de la rue Blanche, she joined the Comédie-Française, appearing for the first time on stage in She would later appear on stage in Café de la Gare by the side of Romain Bouteille, Coluche and Patrick Dewaere. After revealing her talent in a wide range of productions, including productions in Cafés Theatres and repertoire classics (especially Shakespeare s Othello, A Midsummer Night s Dream and As You Like It in the Avignon Drama Festival in 1976) she started writing and finished her first screenplay in 1973 (On s est trompé d histoire d amour based on the book by Jean-Louis Bertucelli). Two years later, she directed her first short for television Le rende-vous, which was followed by the documentary Mais qu est-ce qu elles veulent. Mais qu est-ce qu elles veulent screened in competition at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival and her reputation as a feminist artist began to take shape. That same year, she directed her first fiction feature, Pourquoi pas! (Why not?). In 1979, she focused on TV (Grand-mére de l Islam) and a live performance of Sophocle s Oedipe Roi for the RAI. After the unnoticed Qu est-ce qu on attend pour être heureux?, in 1982, she encounterd worldwide success with Trois hommes et un couffin (1985) in which three men are confronted with girl power. In 1989, she embraced another struggle: interracial tolerance through the love story of a CEO and a black cleaning lady in Romuald et Juliette. This was followed by, La crise, (and success once again) thanks to its harsh, yet humorous depiction of a generation confronted with unemployment, divorce and family crisis In her following movie, La belle verte, she directed herself playing the part of an extraterrestrial that discovers a plant ravaged by the excess waste left by the consumption of society. While audiences failed to show much interest in this environmental tale, Coline Serreau met success again five years later with Chaos. Nominated in six different categories at the 2001 César Awards, the ferocious Chaos is a story denouncing society s lack of courage.

9 SERREAU Filmography 1973 ON S EST TROMPE D HISTOIRE D AMOUR By Jean-Louis Bertucelli Writer-actor 1977 WHY NOT! Writer-director Prix Georges-Sadoul 1978 BUT WHAT DO THEY (WOMEN) WANT? Director Reportage 1979 GRAND MERES DE L ISLAM Director Reportage 1982 QU EST-CE QU ON ATTEND POUR ETRE HEUREUX Writer-director 1985 THREE MEN AND A CRADDLE Writer-director Grand Prix de l Académie nationale du cinéma Best Screenplay, Césars 1985 Best French Film, Césars MAMA, THERE S A MAN IN YOUR BED Writer-director 1991 CRISIS Writer-director Best Screenplay, Césars LA BELLE VERTE Writer-director-actor 2001 CHAOS Writer-director 18 YEARS LATER Writer-director

10 ALAIN SARDE (Producer) Sarde began his career in 1977 as co-producer of André Téchiné s Barocco. Since then, he has established himself as one of France s leading producers, alternating between commercial films and more specialized ones. He has worked on three other occasions with Coline Serreau, on Crisis, La Belle Verte and 18 Years Later. Sarde s over 140 films include such memorable titles as Bertrand Blier s Beau-père Jean-Luc Godard s Every Man For Himself, Passion and First Name: Carmen, Bertrand Tavernier s A Sunday in the Country, Roman Polanski s Bitter Moon and The Pianist, André Téchiné s Ma maison préférée, Wild Reeds and Thieves, Alejandro Amenabar s Open Your Eyes, Claude Sautet s Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud, Jacques Doillon s Ponette, David Lynch s The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive, Michael Haneke s Code Unknown and The Piano Teacher, Daniele Thompson s Jet Lag and Mike Leigh s All or Nothing. * * *

11 ABOUT THE CAST RACHIDA BRAKNI (Malika/Noémie) Chaos launched Brakni as a major new star in France. Her performance captivated French audiences and won her César and Lumière Awards for Most Promising Actress. Currently a member of the Comedie Francaise, Brakni recently won a Molière for Best New Stage Actress for her role as Queen Maria in Victor Hugo s Ruy Blas. She began her stage career in 1997 in a live theater performance of Richard III. For her performance in the play The Kiss in the Night she was awarded the Sylvia Monfort First Tragedy Prize. In 1998, Brakni appeared in a short film titled Voiles, and began her work in feature films in 1999 with Henri Duparc s Une couleur café, followed by Andre Techine s Loin (2001). After Chaos she filmed a role in Marie-France Pisier s Comme un avion (Like an Airplane, 2002). A recent graduate of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, Brakni was still a student when she was cast in Chaos. There were a lot of very good actresses, says Serreau, but Rachida was the obvious choice. Filmography 1999 UNE COULEUR CAFÉ (Henri Duparc) 2001 CHAOS (Coline Serreau) FAR AWAY (André Téchiné) UNE CLE DE CHEZ ELLE (Marie-France Pisier) VINCENT LINDON (Paul) Vincent Lindon has collaborated twice before with Coline Serreau: on La Belle Verte (1995) and Crisis (1992).. Serreau has stated that she believes Lindon to be one of the leading actors of his generation. Lindon has appeared in over thirty films since 1983, including Claire Denis Vendredi soir, Benoit Jacquot s The School of Flesh, Claude Lelouch s The Beautiful Story, Diane Kurys C est la vie and A Man in Love, Bob Swaim s Half Moon Street,

12 Jean-Jacques Beineix s Betty Blue, and Bertrand Blier s Our Story. Lindon co-wrote the scripts of Paparazzi (1998) and Pas d histoires! (2001), which he also directed. He also directed the film Cyrano in Filmography 1983 LE FAUCON (Paul Boujenah) THE EBONY TOWER (Bob Knight) THE PATSY (Denis Amar) 1984 OUR STORY (Bertrand Blier) COP S HONOUR (José Pinheiro) 1985 BETTY BLUE (Jean-Jacques Beineix) Prix Georges de Beauregard Grand Prix of the Americas at the Montreal festival Prix Air Canada HALF MOON STREET (Bob Swaim) 1986 PRUNELLE BLUES (Jacques Otmezguine) A MAN IN LOVE (Diane Kurys) LAST SUMMER IN TANGIERS (Alexandre Arcady) SAFE BREAKER (Paul Boujenah) 1987 A FEW DAYS WITH ME (Claude Sautet) 1988 THE STUDENT (Claude Pinoteau) 1989 IL Y A DES JOURS ET DES LUNES (Claude Lelouch) C EST LA VIE (Diane Kurys)

13 1990 GASPARD AND ROBINSON (Tony Gatlif) 1990 NETCHAIEV IS BACK (Jacques Deray) 1991 THE BEAUTIFUL STORY (Claude Lelouch) 1992 CRISIS (Coline Serreau) ALL THAT FOR THIS? (Claude Lelouch) 1993 THE INDECISIVE GUY (Jean-Pierre Ronsin) 1995 STRANGLED LIVES (Ricky Tognazzi) (VITE STROZZATE) LA BELLE VERTE (Coline Serreau) LES VICTIMES (Patrick Grandperret) 1996 FRED (Pierre Jolivet) 1997 SEVENTH HEAVEN (Benoit Jacquot) PAPARAZZI (Alain Berberian) 1998 THE SCHOOL OF FLESH (Benoit Jacquot) BEAUTIFUL MOTHER (Gabriel Aghion) MY LITTLE BUSINESS (Pierre Jolivet) Best Screenplay prize at the Festival des Films de Monde, Montreal KEEP IT QUIET (Benoit Jacquot) 2001 CHAOS (Coline Serreau)

14 MERCREDI (Pascal Thomas) VENDREDI SOIR (Claire Denis) CATHERINE FROT (Hélène) Catherine Frot was nominated for the César for Best Actress for her role in Chaos. Frot has enjoyed a successful career in both theater and cinema. Her best known films in America include Francis Veber s The Dinner Game, Cedric Klapisch s Un air de famille (for which she won a César for Best Supporting Actress), Claire Denis I Can t Sleep, and Alain Resnais Mon oncle d Amerique. She was also nominated for the Cesar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Jean-Charles Tacchella s Staircase C. In 1979, at the start of her theatrical career, Frot appeared in the play C était comment dejà? which was awarded the Critics Circle Prize. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Molière Awards in 1989 for the production Faut pas tuer maman. Filmography 1980 MY AMERICAN UNCLE (Alain Resnais) PSY (Philippe de Broca) 1981 GUY DE MAUPASSANT (Michel Drach) LES BABAS COOL (François Leterrier) 1984 UNE PIERRE DANS LA BOUCHE (Jean-Louis Leconte) STAIRCASE C (Jean-Charles Tacchella) Césars nomination for Best Supporting Actress 1985 ELSA, ELSA (Didier Haudepin) 1987 SORCERESS (Suzanne Schiffman)

15 1990 TOM AND LOLA (B. Arthuys) 1994 I CAN T SLEEP (Claire Denis) 1996 FAMILY RESEMBLANCES (Cedric Klapisch) Césars for Best Supporting Actress 1998 ÇA RESTE ENTRE NOUS (c. Brenner / J.C. Larrive) 1999 THE DINNER GAME (Francis Veber) LA DILETTANTE (Pascal Thomas) Best Actress prize, Moscow INSEPARABLES (M. Couvelard) 2001 CHAOS (Coline Serreau) LINE RENAUD (Mamie) Line Renaud was nominated for a César as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Chaos. She began her career in cinema with the film Ils sont dans les vignes in Since her start, Renaud has appeared in ten other films, including Claire Denis I Can t Sleep and Claude Zidi s Le cop 2. She also works often on television and in live theater. Filmography 1951 ILS SONT DANS LES VIGNES (Robert Vernay) 1952 PARIS CHANTE TOUJOURS (Pierre Montazel) 1953 LA ROUTE DU BONHEUR (Maurice Labro)

16 1955 LA MADELON (Jean Boyer) 1956 MADEMOISELLE ET SON GANG (Jean Boyer) 1988 LE MARRIAGE DE FIGARO (Roger Coggio) 1990 LE COP 2 (Claude Zidi) 1993 I CAN T SLEEP (Claire Denis) 1995 MY WOMAN IS LEAVING ME (Didier Kaminka) 1998 BEAUTIFUL MOTHER (Gabriel Aghion) DOGGY BAG (Frédéric Comtet) 2001 CHAOS (Coline Serreau) AURÉLIEN WIIK (Fabrice) Aurélien has numerous experiences in cinema, short films, television, and theater. In 1993 alone, Wiik appeared in the feature film Cache-Cash, the short film Arene, and television s Les nouveaux exploits d Arsene Lupin. CHLOÉ LAMBERT S (Florence) Chloé Lambert s role as Florence in Chaos marks her first appearance in a feature film. Prior to this project, Lambert was in several short films, and has extensive live theater and television experience.