Chocolat

This alluring and sensuous film is based in a town in the South of France which is very set in its ways. Two red-hooded figures arrive at the start of the “Holy Lent and Fast” and cause a stir. Literally, stirring stuff! One of the best scenes in the film shows a vat of melted chocolate being stirred with a mix of colours that makes me hungry even to think about.

Well acted, beautifully shot and very thoughtfully written, this film deserves the acclaim it received. From the opening scene where a grey and dismal and almost fairy tale town is teased by the sly north wind, we are lured into a story built around stories. The villain is likeably comic, pitiable in his devotion to tradition and inability to admit the inconsistency within the town that they are not truly devoted to the traditions they hold, they merely follow them in fear of upsetting others.

As well made as the film is and enticing as all that chocolate is, sweet, creamy, delicious, wonderful chocolate, I feel the film allures the spectator in a not so helpful way. The message of the film seems to be, firstly, chocolate and by connection pleasure, is what life is about – to deny yourself it is self-limiting and hypocritical, comical and pointless. Secondly, the last line of the film, “The North wind still spoke of battles to be fought by someone else another time”, presents a picture of apathy towards making a stand for what is right in favour of an easy life of pleasure which seems in contradiction to the rest of the film. That, for me is not so much a major point as the one-sided view of the church that is portrayed in the film.

Naturally, the colours associated with the church are black, dull brown and grey, whereas Vianne, the heroine of the film, with her radical ideas is colourful and attractive. Naturally, the church is seen as a place where everyone fearfully tries to look good and only Vianne can see the need of the person who does not fit in. Naturally, the church can not change people, but chocolate can. In the final scene – a pagan festival that the whole town can join in, the Comte de Reynaud is wearing a white suit. The grey town of the opening sequence is transformed to sunny terracotta. Happy ending. The crazy polarisation of these two positions is nothing short of humanist propaganda, which is fortunately hilarious, entertaining and to the cynical observer, transparently one-sided. My concern is however, that, once again, the church is ridiculed and no one notices.

Rightly, the message that we should look out for people’s real needs and hurts and not try to present the veneer of respectability to cover our own, but, wrongly, Joanne Harris asserts that it is the divinity of Christ, or at least, the misplaced view of his divinity, that has caused the townsfolk to be so uptight.

The young father, Pere Henri gives this address:

I don't want to talk about His [Jesus'] divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life here on earth. His kindness, His tolerance...Listen, here's what I think. I think we can't go 'round measuring our goodness by what we don't do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

The message of tolerance is here admirable, because it stands against self-righteousness. True enough Jesus himself was criticised by the Reynaud’s of his day for being the chocolate of life to people who, in their eyes were immoral social down-and-outs. But the idea that God, or Jesus’ divinity is distant and his humanity is near us is a horribly skewed thing to say. Listen, here's what I think...I think to say the divinity of Christ causes intolerance is to completely misunderstand the awe that in Jesus, God Himself was stepping into his own world and becoming nothing, dying in love the worst of deaths to include people in his family. It is Jesus’ divinity that makes his inclusion of traitors, drunkards and frauds among his closest friends all the more astonishing.

However, all this aside, I have grown in my appreciation of the film and I loved the subtlety of the dialogue, if not the characterisation. And I must say, I particularly love the climactic scene where the Comte de Reynaud finally cracks and destroys the entire shop window display of Vianne’s shop, which looks like it was a lot of fun to make.

And all of that without mentioning Jonny Depp, who, when combined with chocolate must make this film into a most tasty delicacy for any woman.