Skip to main content

Love, And All It's Flavors

France as a country and French as a language are often viewed by Americans as being a culture of romance. It’s no surprise then that the film Chocolat markets itself as a romantic movie, featuring Vianne (Juliette Binoche) sensually feeding Roux (Johnny Depp) chocolate on the movie poster. With this in mind, I was somewhat surprised to find that Depp’s character isn’t even introduced until halfway through the film, and disappears prior to the finale, only to return in the film's closing scene. This wasn’t exactly a disappointment, as I haven't been a fan of Johnny Depp since Benny and June, but it was a surprise nevertheless.



In fact, I was quite delighted to see that the romantic relationship of the main character, Vianne, took a back seat to her relationship with the townsfolk she meets, and the townsfolk' relationships with each other. The aforementioned movie poster clearly leads the viewer to believe that chocolate in the movie is a representation of love. This is technically true, but what the romantic framing of the movie doesn’t represent is how the love that the chocolate represents goes far beyond just the romantic kind.



There are some romantic/sexual relationships that Vianne helps to bring to life with her chocolate, most notably a local woman Yvette (Elisabeth Commelin) and her husband (Ron Cook), as well as a village widow, Madame Audel (Leslie Caron) and her long-time admirer Guillaume (John Wood ). However the stories that are at the forefront of the film are about chocolate as a touchstone for non-romantic love. Hot chocolate and chocolate cake help mend a familial bond between a grandmother, Armande (Judi Dench) and her grandson Luc (Aurélien Parent-Koenig). The main story, however, is Vianne’s chocolate creating a loving friendship between herself and Josephine (Lena Olin), a woman abused by her husband (Peter Stormare), lacking the confidence and strength to leave him. Vianne encourages Josephine with her chocolate and her kindness, growing the loving friendship between them as well as Josephine’s own self-love. Vianne sell’s chocolates to her community, and in doing so she brings love into the lives of those she meets.



The theme of chocolate as an aphrodisiac in films is nothing new, but Chocolat goes beyond this limiting interpretation of the thematic role of chocolate, and uses it as inspiration for a variety of relationships are all kinds, much like Vianne’s complex and diverse menu of chocolates in her shop.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food, Religion, and Babette's Feast

I’m not particularly familiar with the relationship between food and protestantism, which is really due to the fact that I’ve never experienced any sort of protestant holiday or service. What I do know about the protestant faith, both from the film Babette’s Feast and from past history classes where I learned about Martin Luther, is that protestants vehemently avoid the enjoyment of earthly pleasures, including things like dancing and fine food. On one end of the spectrum is hedonism, and on the other end is protestantism. What interests me about this is how different this relationship between religion and food is how different it is from the religious experiences I’ve had in my own life. At my grandmother's house in West Virginia, the very solemn methodist easter sunday service I went to was followed by an easter dinner with a ham and all the trimmings. At the reform jewish synagogue I went to growing up, the Friday services were followed by the oneg, where the temple gather...
1 comment
Read more

The Morning After The Big Night

Big Night is the type of film that seems very simple on the surface, but once you look a little deeper, every single scene has unspoken messages that even the casual viewer can’t help but contemplate. As a film student, It’s part of my job to look for meaning and symbolism in films, but even my mom, a fan of cinema, but not a film scholar by any means, was fascinated by hidden messages and implications this film brings to the table.  The film Big Night is a masterclass in using long, silent scenes that have incredible impact without the use of dialogue. The most notable example of this is the final scene of the film. Secundo walks into the kitchen after the titular big night. Cristano, the waiter, wakes up from where he has been sleeping on the kitchen counter. Secundo cooks simple eggs, and divides the eggs among three plates, and he and Cristano, and eventually Primo, eat their eggs with the leftover bread from the previous night. The scene is silent, and mostly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thanksgiving With The Family

 In a way, What’s Cooking follows a lot of the patterns of any sitcom’s thanksgiving special. In the show Friend’s, the Thanksgiving episode of the 9th season is involved with the family drama of the secrets that Ross and Monica are hiding from their parents, most prominently the fact that Monia and Chandler are living together. The tension of the episode relies on the things that are not being said; Rachel’s failure of making a trifle, Monica and Chandler’s relationship, Phoebe's weird sex dream about Monica and Ross’s dad, Ross’s constantly downward spiral of a life, etc.  In the sitcom Mad About You, we see the struggle of an interfaith couple, Paul and Jamie, attempting to prove to their respective parents that they can cook a great Thanksgiving meal without their help, and without following their family traditions. Their families are appalled by the ways they break tradition; no canned cranberry sauce, no salad, no marshmallows on the sweet potatoes, and most sho...
Post a Comment
Read more