Yesterday night I saw this beautiful French-Canadian movie titled “Turbulence des fluides, La (2002)” (aka Chaos and Desire). Its about a French-Canadian scientist living in Tokyo who visits her hometown in Quebec to study the strange tidal behaviour, which she suspects might even lead to an earthquake. Soon she is confronted by some mysterious series of events, and a range of human emotions in the small Quebec town. It’s a visually splendid movie with a heart-touching script. The lead actress, Pascale Bussières, is a delight.
The strangeness you feel watching this film is rooted in a fight between science and love. It is a tribute to forces beyond our control and looks at the power of will and fate in strongly cinematic terms. Alternately eerie, magical and passionate, the film gracefully explores both personal and natural disasters. The movie has won several awards at film festivals world over, and it was also named one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2002.