Chocolat - a small bite is enough

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Movie
German title Chocolat - a small bite is enough
Original title Chocolat
Country of production United Kingdom
United States
original language English , French
Publishing year 2000
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Let Hallström
script Robert Nelson Jacobs
production David Brown , Leslie Holleran , Kit Golden
music Rachel Portman
camera Roger Pratt , Amy Gilliam
cut Andrew Mondshein
occupation

Chocolat - One small bite is enough (Original title: Chocolat ) is a British-American film from 2000 based on the novel Chocolat by Joanne Harris . The film shows "a fairy tale for adults" and is at the same time an appeal for tolerance . The romantic film was directed by Lasse Hallström and the script was written by Robert Nelson Jacobs . Juliette Binoche played the main role .

action

House in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain that served as the backdrop for the chocolaterie

On an ice cold, windy day in the winter of 1959, Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk arrived in the sleepy provincial town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes between Toulouse and Bordeaux . Vianne is a restless person who pulls with the wind and lets herself be guided by her late mother Chiza, who once lived as a nomad in Mexico and confided the secrets of making chocolate to her daughter.

In the provincial town Vianne rents an empty former pâtisserie from the old lady Armande and converts it into a chocolaterie . In addition, she opens her shop during Christian Lent - much to the displeasure of the bigoted mayor Comte de Reynaud, who leads the fortunes of the city with a conservative, hard hand and even sifts through the sermon texts of the young pastor before their preaching and changes them in his own way.

Even more than with her sweets and chocolates, Vianne's open, cordial nature gradually makes some friends in the town. Among them is Armande, who is in a clinch with her widowed daughter Caroline and is therefore not allowed to see her grandson Luc. Reynaud, however, sees Vianne more and more as the embodiment of evil, especially since she does not go to church and is also the single mother of an illegitimate daughter. She becomes even more annoyed when she takes in the kleptomaniac Josephine, who has been abused by her husband Serge , and teaches her the craft of chocolate making. Reynaud tries to get the bar man Serge back on the path of virtue in order to save their marriage, but after initial successes he cannot give up alcohol and becomes violent again when Josephine accepts his apology but does not want to return to him.

During a bedtime story , Vianne tells her daughter about her father, Anouk's grandfather, a pharmacist who, in the spring of 1927, went on a research trip with the pharmaceutical company to Central America, where her grandfather was given natural cocoa with a pinch of chili pepper for the first time , the same drink as the ancient Maya consumed in their sacred ceremonies. It was there that the grandfather met and fell in love with his wife Chiza, a nomad. From her mother, Vianne Rocher inherited the urge to move from place to place with the ancient cocoa recipes.

When Vianne warmly welcomes a group of vagabonds camping on the River Tannes and later engages in a relationship with the gypsy Roux, Reynaud instigates a “boycott against immorality” with a leaflet and wants the unsteady “river rats” in his City do not tolerate. Despite this, Armande ends the celebration of her 70th birthday on the boat Rouxs and spends her with her guests, one of them Luc, who, to Caroline's displeasure, met his grandmother with Vianne's help at the chocolaterie and drew a portrait of her have a nice evening. Encouraged by Reynaud's anger, Serge sets the boat on fire at night. Roux and his clan move on. Vianne can no longer stand the hostility of the villagers and wants to move on, but is stopped by her daughter, who is tired of the unsteady life. Armande, who suffers from severe diabetes and has promised to move to a retirement home after her birthday party, has meanwhile peacefully fell asleep in her armchair.

Reynaud is horrified when Serge proudly tells him that he has done what was necessary and set the boat on fire, and chases him out of town. After all, Reynaud sees no other way out. He breaks into Vianne's shop and begins to devastate it. As he smashed the chocolate displays in the shop window, a chocolate chip fell on his lips. The taste overwhelms him and awakens his long suppressed passions and needs, so that he eats even more chocolate and falls asleep in the window dressing, where the priest and Vianne find him and wake him up the next morning. Suddenly he realizes that he was wrong and asks Vianne's forgiveness.

The story ends with a big chocolate festival with jugglers, a dancer and a fire-eater, where the citizens taste real zest for life for the first time. Even Reynaud, whose wife left him months ago, takes part and gets closer to his secretary Caroline. Josephine takes over the abandoned pub from Serge and turns it into Café Armande . In addition, Roux returns to Vianne.

Awards

The film was represented in the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival 2001 for the Golden Bear , but could not prevail against Patrice Chéreau's erotic drama Intimacy . On the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2001 Lasse Hallstrom won the Audience Award.

At the European Film Awards in 2001, Juliette Binoche won the Jameson Audience Award for best actress , for which Lena Olin was also nominated. Lasse Hallström was nominated for the Jameson Audience Award for best director .

At the 2001 Academy Awards , Chocolat was nominated in the categories of Best Film , Best Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Supporting Actress ( Judi Dench ), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Music, but had to admit defeat to other films in all categories. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe in the categories of Best Film - Comedy or Musical , Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy (Juliette Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench) and Best Film Music. At the 2001 BAFTA Awards , the film received nominations in the categories of Best Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Lena Olin and Judi Dench), Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Cinematography , Best Production Design , Best Costumes and Best Mask . Robert Nelson Jacobs won the San Diego Film Critics Society Award in 2000 for Best Adapted Screenplay . He was also nominated for the USC Scripter Award and the Writers Guild of America Award . Judi Dench was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama . She also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress . The film was also nominated for this award in the categories of Best Ensemble in a Feature Film and Best Actress .

The American Cinema Editors nominated Andrew Mondshein in the Best Edited Feature Film - Comedy or Musical category . The Art Directors Guild honored David Gropman , John Frankish , Lucy Richardson and Louise Marzaroli with the Excellent Production Design Award . The British Society of Cinematographers nominated Roger Pratt for Best Cinematography . Renee Ehrlich Kalfus was nominated by the Costume Designers Guild Awards for Excellent Costumes in a Feature Film - Fantasy . Rachel Portman was nominated for an Oscar and a World Soundtrack Award in 2001 and a Grammy in 2002 for her film music for Chocolat .

At the Japanese Academy Awards 2002, Chocolat was nominated for Best Foreign Film . In the same category, the film was nominated for the Italian David di Donatello film award. For the Spanish Goya film was as Best European film nominated. The Guild of German Art House Cinemas honored him in 2002 as a foreign Best Film with a Guild Film Award in Gold from.

The film received the Box Office Germany Award in 2001, which is linked to the number of visitors .

Reviews

film-dienst wrote about the film: “A romantic comedy with touching and tragicomic moments that advocates tolerance and human dignity as well as sensuality and joie de vivre. Quite amusing in its symbolic parody, it suffers from an all too smooth staging of the day before yesterday, which reaches its obvious role models only for a moment. "

The renowned American film critic Roger Ebert said in the Chicago Sun-Times of December 22, 2000 that the film was "delightful" (charming) and "bizarre" (whimsical) and that Binoche reigned as a serene and wise goddess.

Remarks

  • Lena Olin, who portrays Josephine Muscat , starred in The Unbearable Lightness of Being alongside Juliette Binoche in 1988 . She is married to the director of the film, the Swede Lasse Hallström.
  • The place Lansquenet-sous-Tannes is fictional. The film was shot in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in central France and in Beynac-et-Cazenac .
  • Johnny Depp (Roux) played the two guitar pieces of the drivers himself, also for the soundtrack.
  • The song Minor Swing , which is played by Johnny Depp on guitar, was heard in a longer scene in Arizona Dream in 1993 (also with Depp in the lead role).
  • Minor Swing is a composition by the Sinto guitarist Django Reinhardt , whose playing style is quoted by Johnny Depp.
  • In the special DVD version, there was a box of chocolates and a booklet with recipes that Vianne (together with Josephine) cooks in the film.
  • Lena Olin and Johnny Depp also starred in the film The Nine Gates .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Chocolat - a small bite is enough . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2009 (PDF; test number: 87 136 V).
  2. ↑ Chocolat - A small bite is enough ( memento from August 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon
  3. ↑ https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/chocolat-2000

Web links