Starring Vanessa Paradis and Kevin Parent. In French with English subtitles. Rated 14A. Opens Friday, December 2, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

Are the great passions of our lives predetermined through inexplicable means? That’s one of the core questions raised, if not answered, in Café de Flore, an aesthetically rich experiment in experimental storytelling that manages to satisfy the senses even when the brain remains puzzled.

It’s essentially two stories, with a more sober-sided period drama set in late-1960s Paris woven into a stylishly au courant portrait of Montreal club deejay Antoine Godin (Quebec singer Kevin Parent, in his first acting role), neurotically troubled despite jet-setting success and an ostensibly happy home life.

It takes some time to realize that Antoine’s gorgeous mate (Evelyne Brochu, who resembles a young Jeanne Moreau) is not the mother of his two pretty daughters (Rosalie Fortier and Joanny Corbeil-Picher). Antoine’s ex-wife, Carole (Hélène Florent, who slyly steals the movie), is no longer sharing their deluxe abode. The formerly long-time marriage (and Carole’s dreams, in particular) seems haunted, for no explicable reason, by memories of working-class Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), living in Paris decades previous with a son with Down syndrome (impressive Marin Gerrier) for whom she is determined to provide a good life, against all odds.

Jacqueline’s challenges and the child’s fate gradually seep into our disc-spinner’s daily life in ways that director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria) hints at, mainly by having images or snippets of music show up in the film’s parallel halves. The contact is made slightly more explicit when Carole consults a psychic who seems to see hints of Jacqueline’s story around her.

You might not be swayed by the movie’s mystical side, but it has an invigorating wild streak. And those Sigur Rós, Pink Floyd, and Dinah Washington tunes could just make you a believer.

Watch the trailer for Café de Flore.