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Chocolat More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 27 reviews in total |
38 out of 40 people found the following review useful:
Emotionally resonant, 29 March 2004
Author:
Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.
Set in the Cameroons in West Africa in the 1950s, Claire Denis' Chocolat is
a beautifully photographed and emotionally resonant tone poem that depicts
the effects of a dying colonialism on a young family during the last years
of French rule. The theme is similar to the recent Nowhere in Africa, though
the films are vastly different in scope and emphasis. The film is told from
the perspective of an adult returning to her childhood home in a foreign
country. France Dalens (Mireille Perrier), a young woman traveling through
Cameroon, recalls her childhood when her father (Francois Cluzet) was a
government official in the French Cameroons and she had a loving friendship
with the brooding manservant, Protée (Isaach de Bankolé). The heart of the
film, however, revolves around France's mother Aimée (Giulia Boschi) and her
love/hate relationship with Protée that is seething with unspoken sexual
tension.
The household is divided into public and private spaces. The white families
rooms are private and off limits to all except Protée who works in the house
while the servants are forced to eat and shower outdoors, exposing their
naked bronze bodies to the white family's gazes. It becomes clear when her
husband Marc (François Cluzet) goes away on business that Aimée and Protée
are sexually attracted to each other but the rules of society prevent it
from being openly acknowledged. In one telling sequence, she invites him
into her bedroom to help her put on her dress and the two stare at each
other's image in the mirror with a defiant longing in their eyes, knowing
that any interaction is taboo.
The young France (Cecile Ducasse) also forms a bond with the manservant,
feeding him from her plate while he shows her how to eat crushed ants and
carries her on his shoulders in walks beneath the nocturnal sky. In spite of
their bond, the true nature of their master-servant relationship is apparent
when France commands Protée to interrupt his conversation with a teacher and
immediately take her home, and when Protée stands beside her at the dinner
table, waiting for her next command. When a plane loses its propeller and is
forced to land in the nearby mountains, the crew and passengers must move
into the compound until a replacement part can be located. Each visitor
shows their disdain for the Africans, one, a wealthy owner of a coffee
plantation brings leftover food from the kitchen to his black mistress
hiding in his room. Another, Luc (Jean-Claude Adelin), an arrogant white
Frenchman, upsets the racial balance when he uses the outside shower, eats
with the servants, and taunts Aimée about her attraction to Protée leading
her to a final emotional confrontation with the manservant.
Chocolat is loosely autobiographical, adapted from the childhood memories of
the director, and is slowly paced and as mysterious as the brooding
isolation of the land on which it is filmed. Denis makes her point about the
effects of colonialism without preaching or romanticizing the characters.
There are no victims or oppressors, no simplistic good guys. Protée is a
servant but he is also a protector as when he stands guard over the bed
where Aimée and her daughter sleep to protect them from a rampaging hyena.
It is a sad fact that Protée is treated as a boy and not as a man, but
Bankolé imbues his character with such dignity and stature that it lessens
the pain. Because of its pace, Western audiences may have to work hard to
fully appreciate the film and Denis does not, in Roger Ebert's phrase,
"coach our emotions". The truth of Chocolat lies in the gestures and glances
that touch the silent longing of our heart.
16 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
a thoughtful and interesting movie, 2 March 2001
Author:
Heart89 from Sebastopol, California
By way of a woman's remembrance we are asked to reflect upon themes -
coming
of age, colonialism, race, religion, the power of the elements - that are
often presented in a heavy-handed and awkward manner.
This film is very understated and thoughtful. There is no one single
message or moral here; these are complex themes and so there is often
ambiguity.
I liked this film very much. I know this will seem trite, but, not many
American Directors make small films like this - ones that deal with complex
themes in a gentle and intelligent manner.
11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Difficult but worth it., 23 February 2000
Author:
berthe bovy (hitch1899_@hotmail.com) from paris, france
A lovely comedy-drama that seems like a gorgeous, sunlit, Orientalist-like tourism into an unfathomable Africa, and an elaborate, irrelevant exercise in Merchant-Ivory-style historical reconstruction, but is actually a quietly disturbing examination of the effects of colonialism. Being French, the focus is one the microcosmic - it's not vast historical truths that are enacted, but the inability of a beautiful white woman to act on sexual stirrings for her black servant. The film's surface elegance conceals remarkable disruptions in point of view and a storytelling style so elliptical you might even miss the point if you're not careful. CHOCOLAT is also a wonderful coming-of-age film that refuses the easy moral progress typical of the genre. The lengthy coda could have been shorter, though.
9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Deeper than Black vs. White, 23 December 2000
Author:
Pablo from Seattle
Unfortunately, because of US viewers' tendency to shun subtitles, this movie has not received the distribution nor attention it merits. Its subtle themes of belonging, identity, racial relations and especially how colonialism harms all parties, transcend the obvious dramatic tensions, the nostalgic memories of the protaganiste's childhood, and the exoticism of her relationship with her parents' "houseboy," perhaps the only "real" human she knows. We won't even look at her mother's relationship with this elegant man. There! i hope i've given you enough of a hook to take it in, whether you speak French or like subtitles or not. I challenge you to be as brave, strong and aware as La P'tite.
13 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
For use in high school classes, 28 February 2001
Author:
Orgelist from Seattle, WA
My 3rd-year French classes always enjoyed this film very much. In a
multi-cultural, inner-city high school, the film provided many subjects for
discussion (in French in class, but I know a lot of discussion went on in
English after class). The most obvious is the relationship between Protée
and Aimée compared to the one between Protée and France.
I always mentioned that I felt this film had one of the "sexiest" scenes I
had ever seen in a movie. One year, a 17-year-old African-American shouted,
"Yes!" when he figured out the scene: the one where Protée is helping Aimée
lace up her evening dress, all the while both are examining the reflection
of the other in the mirror. Directors use the "mirror technique" when then
want to focus on the inner conflict on the part of one or more character in
a scene: this is a perfect example of the technique, and it is
"sexy".
Most students had trouble understanding the end of the film. One suggested
that one theme of the movie was "Africanism", and that no matter how much
one loved Africa or Africans, one cannot "become" African (like the driver
tried to do): one must BE African.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Not for everybody., 30 April 1999
Author:
Artthere from Colorado Springs
I loved this film because in my mind it seemed to so perfectly capture what I imagined life in French colonial Africa must have been like in the 50's ("my" generation anyway). But I was truly enraptured by its quiet pacing and by the glorious ending. Within the last 5 minutes of this film, you must focus intently on what's happening. Never have I been more impressed with the "wrap-up" of a film. I remember yelling "wow!" when I realized it was over. On the other hand, my two daughters fell asleep on the couch!!
7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
an enigma, just like its characters, 26 July 2001
Author:
(westpenn49) from United States
In reflecting on this movie I can think of two others to help put it in
perspective. One relatively forgettable but covering the same geography, is
Coup de Torchon, the other thousands of miles away and much larger in scope
is the unforgettable Indochine. Claire Denis has produced a movie that has
some of the grand underpinnings of Indochine, the complex and unspoken
relationship between France and her colonial subjects.
I was struck with the dignity of Potee, with his struggle to maintain his
dignity among his peers and with his white bosses. I was also struck with
the love/hate relationship between him and Aimee. It is the latter that
gives the film its driving force, it is the latter that links this movie to
Indochine.
One never is sure what motivates everyone, though some of the characters are
required of a remembrance of colonialism. It is this cynical side of the
story that ties it to Coup de Torchon. Theirs is the more scandalous story,
perhaps even more interesting in a depraved way, but Denis gives us a
remembrance of how it was with all the tension and unresolved
relationships.
The American black who gives the grown up France a ride in the beginning and
end of the movie offers yet another interesting side to the confusion that
we in the Western world have when we look at Africa. He says that when he
came he wanted to call everyone brother. He was coming home, but they just
thought him to be a little daft. France, the character and the girl, grew up
in Cameroon, but neither fully understands what it is even though they can
remember how it was.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
intriguing colonial allegory, 10 November 2010
Author:
Michael Neumann from United States
Elusive, introspective memories of a childhood in colonial Africa are recalled through the eyes of a self-possessed young girl with the telltale name France. In her calm, observant demeanor she is, herself, almost African, and likewise the film is beautiful and aloof in a way that speaks volumes with a minimum of words. Nothing is ever made explicit, least of all the suppressed attraction between France's young mother, left in charge of a remote homestead while her husband is away on business, and the handsome native houseboy who suffers his servitude with a proud but uneasy forbearance. Writer director Claire Denis shows a strong affinity for the landscapes and people of her adopted continent, maintaining a beguiling ambiguity about who exactly has the upper hand: the French masters or the passive, patient native servants.
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Very good but it's still missing something..., 10 July 2007
Author:
planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is an amazing film to watch or show young people. Aside from a
very brief nude scene, it gives an interesting glimpse into colonial
rule in Africa that you'll rarely find in other films. It does bear a
superficial similarity to OUT OF Africa, but without all the romantic
fluff. The White French people in Cameroon are fascinating because they
don't even seem to regard the natives as people. The Whites are all the
bosses and they expect Black servitude without question. However,
unlike real servants, you only once hear any of the Whites say 'thank
you' and no other regard is given these people. Again and again, it's
like they are pets or slaves, as the feelings of the people are never
even considered.
The central illustration of this thoughtlessness is the relationship
between the mother, Aimée and her servant, Protée. Although at times
they spend a lot of time together and it is only normal that they might
begin to have sexual feelings towards each other, the White woman never
considers Protée or the existence of his feelings. A good example of
this thoughtlessness is when she has Protée lace up her dress and it's
obvious that he is very sexually frustrated by this. Apart from this
relationship, while almost all the Whites are completely oblivious to
the fact that the Africans are people, a few go so far as to verbally
abuse and treat them like garbage.
Also interesting is the relationship between Protée and the little girl
(who is the one who is grown at the beginning and end of the film).
While they are very close, at times he's more like a plaything or pet
and the girl never plays with native children.
There is one bizarre White character who seems, at times, to regard the
Blacks better but unfortunately his character is very inconsistent and
confusing. One moment, he's doing hard work along side the Blacks or
eating with them (something the other Whites would never have done) and
the next he's trying to beat up Protée! I could only guess as to what
motivated him--perhaps he was just a jerk, or was crazy or perhaps was
a Communist agitator trying to stir up the Blacks against the Whites
(who knows!). In fact, other than a few good scenes, this character
seems pretty much wasted.
While I really enjoyed the insight this movie gave, I wish it had
instead been more than just a few snippets of this world through the
perspective of a child during one small period of her life. The context
and what happened to rid the country of colonialism is never addressed
and the film left me wanting more. The film appeared to begin in the
early 1980s (since she's wearing a Walkman-style headset) and when the
film went back in time, it seems that it was set about 1960 (more or
less), but there was never any mention of the 1950s anti-colonialism
violence or independence for the nation in the early 1960s. I am
guessing that some of this confusion might be that the makers of the
film screwed up and SHOULD have made the beginning of the film earlier
(such as the 1970s) and had the lady think back to her life there in
the early 1950s--before the country experienced political change.
Apart from the missing context and a confusion over time periods, using
the prologue and epilogue that showed her as an adult traveling the
country was a good idea. And I also appreciated the ending, as it was a
pleasant surprise when you find out more about the nice man who offers
her a ride. But overall, it just feels like something is missing--there
just isn't any sort of resolution or message other than showing that
colonialism is thoughtless and cruel.
5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Pointillism, 15 September 2007
Author:
a-jorgensen-1 from United States
I think this movie would be more enjoyable if everyone thought of it as a picture of colonial Africa in the 50's and 60's rather than as a story. Because there is no real story here. Just one vignette on top of another like little points of light that don't mean much until you have enough to paint a picture. The first time I saw Chocolat I didn't really "get it" until having thought about it for a few days. Then I realized there were lots of things to "get", including the end of colonialism which was but around the corner, just no plot. Anyway, it's one of my all-time favorite movies. The scene at the airport with the brief shower and beautiful music was sheer poetry. If you like "exciting" movies, don't watch this--you'll be bored to tears. But, for some of you..., you can thank me later for recommending it to you.
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