A Little Chaos

A Little Chaos
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alan Rickman
Produced by	Gail Egan Andrea Calderwood Bertrand Faivre
Screenplay by	Allison Deegan Alan Rickman Jeremy Brock
Story by	Allison Deegan
Starring	Kate Winslet Matthias Schoenaerts Alan Rickman Stanley Tucci
Music by	Peter Gregson
Cinematography	Ellen Kuras
Edited by	Nicolas Gaster
Production companies	Artemis Films BBC Films Lipsync Productions Potboiler Productions
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date	13 September 2014 (2014-09-13) (TIFF) 17 April 2015 (2015-04-17)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$10,084,623

A Little Chaos is a 2014 British period drama film directed by Alan Rickman. The story was conceived by Allison Deegan and she co-wrote the screenplay along with Rickman and Jeremy Brock. The film stars Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory, Steven Waddington, Jennifer Ehle and Rupert Penry-Jones. The film was financed by the Lionsgate UK and produced by BBC Films. It was the second film directed by Rickman, after his 1997 directorial debut The Winter Guest. It was the second collaboration of Rickman and Winslet after their 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. Production took place in London in mid 2013. The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival as the closing night film on 13 September 2014.

After being given responsibility by King Louis XIV of France for designing and building the Gardens of Versailles, André Le Nôtre interviews candidates for the project, one of whom is a woman with an unconventional sense of gardening, Sabine de Barra. When noticing her move a potted plant in his garden prior to her interview, André confirms Sabine is not a conformist in gardening. She tells him she wants to give them something uniquely French and not follow classical and renaissance models.

On the night after her interview, André surprises Sabine at her home and tasks her with responsibility for an outdoor ballroom surrounded by a fountain and landscaping. André's plans had called for a constant supply of water from a great distance at great expense. Sabine devises an alternate engineering solution based on a reservoir from which water can be continuously recycled through the fountains she has designed. She makes little progress at first because she uses workers recommended by those who lost the contract to her and hope to see her fail. One of them, however, Thierry Duras, intervenes and offers his crew's help.