Talcy of wig and heaving of bosom, **A Little Chaos **promises to dust our Aprils with a liberal helping of period splendour. Alan Rickman’s second directorial effort – the first was **The Winter Guest **back in 1997 – is set in and around the uncompleted Palace of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV. You can immerse yourself in all its detailing and courtly ways with this new trailer for the film.
Lending her heavyweight thespian gifts is Kate Winslet as Madame Sabine De Barra. She’s in contention to become landscape architect of the new palace but finds herself butting heads with her employer, preeminent architect Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts), whose favour she risks shedding as she takes against his love of convention. Privet hedges are out, mate. It’s all about the manicured rose bush.
“The film is about what it is to be a woman who cannot have a professional life in a world that’s totally male-dominated,” explains Rickman in Empire’s new Big Interview. “And then it had to be very much fed and watered by Kate, who did a phenomenal amount of research."
Garden politics aside, there’s also the intrigue fuelled by the Sun King himself (Alan Rickman), who tests Sabine’s resolve in a way that might remind Wolf Hall aficionados of Henry VIII at his most overbearing.
A Little Chaos is in UK cinemas from April 17. For more from Rickman on the film and his other landmark roles, pick up Empire’s new issue from Thursday.