Merci pour le chocolat (2000)

In Lausanne, the aspirant pianist Jeanne Pollet has lunch with her mother Louise Pollet, her boyfriend Axel and his mother. Lenna leans that when she was born, a nurse had mistakenly told ... See full summary »

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Charlotte Armstrong (novel), Claude Chabrol,

Stars:

Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Anna Mouglalis

4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Isabelle Huppert	...	Marie-Claire 'Mika' Muller
Jacques Dutronc	...	André Polonski
Anna Mouglalis	...	Jeanne Pollet
Rodolphe Pauly	...	Guillaume Polonski
Brigitte Catillon	...	Louise Pollet
Michel Robin	...	Dufreigne
Mathieu Simonet	...	Axel
Lydia Andrei	...	Lisbeth
Véronique Alain	...	Madame le Maire
Isolde Barth	...	Pauline
Jacqueline Burnand
François Germond
Antoinette Martin
Michel Moulin
Dorotea Brandin

Storyline

In Lausanne, the aspirant pianist Jeanne Pollet has lunch with her mother Louise Pollet, her boyfriend Axel and his mother. Lenna leans that when she was born, a nurse had mistakenly told to the prominent pianist André Polonski that she would be his daughter. André has just remarried his first wife, the heiress of a Swiss chocolate factory Marie-Claire "Mika" Muller and they live in Lausanne with André's son Guillaume Polonski. Out of the blue, Jeanne visits André and he offers to give piano classes to help her in her examination. Jeanne becomes closer to André and sooner she discovers that Mika might be drugging her stepson with Rohypnol. Further, she might have killed his second wife Lisbeth.

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Plot Keywords:

piano | chocolate | pianist | doubt | concert pianist | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

France Switzerland

Language:

French

Release Date:

25 October 2000 (France)

Also Known As:

Gracias por el chocolate

Filming Locations:

Lausanne, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$31,805 (USA) (16 August 2002)

Gross:

$443,238 (USA) (31 January 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CAB Productions, Canal+, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the time this movie was shot, the house was owned by David Bowie who was trying to sell it.

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Goofs

(at around 40 mins) When Mika is talking to Dr. Pollet in the hospital, two crew members feet and a cable (possibly the boom mic's cable) are visible moving - reflected on the side of table. This shot lasts for approx 50 seconds like this.

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Connections

References Night at the Crossroads (1932)

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Soundtracks

" Funérailles"
de Franz Liszt
Par Claudio Arrau
Copyright Philips Classics
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Universal Music Projets Spéciaux

User Reviews

Murder, elle ecrivait

Like such lovable old-timers as Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood, Claude Chabrol gets into creaky-clunky mode. A far cry from his recent masterly LA CEREMONIE, MERCI notarizes Isabelle Huppert's status as a latter-day Joan Crawford: bad actress; deeply scary; ravaged beauty; and possessed of a sort of sex-hungriness and envy of youth that's written between every line. Here, she is the heiress to a chocolate fortune who seems to be slipping roofies into her family's cocoa. Some interesting Chabrolian perversity bubbles when a local girl who might be Huppert's husband's daughter appears, and enters into a slightly familial, slightly flirtatious relationship with the husband. Huppert seems to be holding a deep, dark melodramatic secret that will snap like a firecracker in the last reel (as in LA CEREMONIE).

Instead, nothing revelatory happens; the sounds of dismay coming from exiting moviegoers was frightening. The patented Chabrol shtik--placid bourgeois surfaces stretched taut over shrieking insanity underneath--is displayed here without a punchline.

Chabrol's quiet steadiness (or steady quietness?) is always a pleasure, even in as visually barren a low-budget feature as this one; but he usually gives much more bang for the buck.