Chaos And Sexism

The film, Chaos, directed by Coline Serreau is set in France, following Helene, a wealthy parisian woman and Malika (Noemie), a young prostitute. There are themes throughout the movie of both sexism and abuse of varying degrees. These themes are spread across different races and social classes through different parts of France. France today also has a fierce sense of nationalism, so much so that they only offer assimilation for immigrants. Any immigrants who come to France must learn French and have an identity as a French person. This is to such an extent that it is unknown quite how many immigrants are in France, as the government simply classifies them as French citizens. This paper explores the complexities between French nationalism and
When Malika is running from her pimp and Paul immediately locks the doors to the car, even though Helene resists, he is taking the leadership role. When Helene feels the need to do the right thing and help Malika, she is overpowered by and submissive to her husband Paul. Helene wants to call an ambulance to help Malika, but Paul doesn’t allow her to because he doesn’t want the inconvenience of having to speak to the cops. Paul immediately gets rid of any evidence tying them to the scene, meanwhile it is apparent that Helene is still worried and wants to help, but feels unable to because her husband told her she is not allowed to help. This theme continues throughout the film after Helene had been seeing Malika in secret and Paul finds out and becomes enraged. Helene sees how incapable Paul is of normal tasks around the house and gains power from that. There is a certain expectation for Paul to have a handle on his wife, and he feels emasculated when he doesn’t know where she is. Eventually Helene stands up to her oppressor and frees herself, this theme persists with other women throughout the
Said says “Orientals lived in their world, ‘we’ lived in ours,” a troubling and divisive statement (44). This is similar to the current conflict in France addressing Muslims in the French communities, where many Muslims are seen as “other.” Many of the French also believe that muslims shouldn’t be allowed in their country because of their customs that are believed to be ‘oppressive’ to women. Just as some Egyptians believed, “Orientals are inveterate liars, they are ‘lethargic and suspicious,’ and in everything oppose the clarity, directness and nobility of the Anglo-Saxon race,” (Said 39). In a similar way, some French people believe that Muslims are ruining their country and their nationalistic ideals. They believe that the way immigrants from other religions and different countries treat their women will ruin French culture. It is apparent in the movie, Chaos, that both the French (represented by Paul) and the immigrants (Zora and Malika’s family) have underlying sexist ideals. This sexism spans across many different social classes in the movie, with Paul being wealthy, and with Malika is used when she is dirt poor. Although the sexism is shown as more blatantly abusive in the cases of Malika and Zora, it still exists coming from someone who is wealthy, white, and