CHOCOLAT: A HEARTWARMING FILM

CHOCOLAT: A HEARTWARMING FILM

For this Christmas, I am going to share one of my favourite live-action films with you, one of my favourite novels... as a review that would make the most sensitive among my readers would love to pick up the book or the DVD, or look for the film on YouTube.
I'm referring to Chocolat, a novel by woman writer Joanne Harris and a film directed by my fellow Swede Lasse Hallström (starring Juliette Binoche as young "witch" Vianne, Alfred Molina as Count François Reynaud, and Victoire Thivisol as lovely little Anouk).

Chocolat is a jewel of a book, and a jewel of a film as well. I absolutely adore its plot, characters, and themes: the contrast between provincialism and globalism, between the countryside/hinterland and foreign countries, the love between mother and daughter, conservative people opening their hearts and minds... and of course, chocolate. Sweet or strong, dark or white, warm and scrumptious.

The story begins with the return of Vianne, our rather unorthodox heroine, to her quaint birthplace of Lansquenet, a fortress village in deep France, which she left to explore the wide world. The young Bohemian's matriarchal family have been nomads for generations. During her travels, she's had an only daughter, Anouk, who shares her mother's nomadic lifestyle. Both wear bright colours, and they are freethinkers who do not attend church on Sundays,

The return of the prodigal daughter, who opens a chocolaterie in the village, sends shockwaves through the local community. The local priest, François Reynaud, dashing yet hard and puritanical as a Catholic clergyman can be (changed into a rightish nobleman, the local lord, in the film), harbours intolerance towards the single mother and her only child... but will their love and their treats warm his heart and open his mind? They surely will.