Synopsis
On her way to visit her childhood home in a colonial outpost in Northern Cameroon, a young French woman recalls her childhood, her memories concentrating on her family's houseboy.
1988 Directed by Claire Denis
On her way to visit her childhood home in a colonial outpost in Northern Cameroon, a young French woman recalls her childhood, her memories concentrating on her family's houseboy.
Brigitte Taillandier Dominique Hennequin Jean-Christophe Winding Jean-Louis Ughetto André Hervée Daniel Couteau Gérard Manneveau
Cinémanuel Cerito Films Caroline Productions La Sept Cinéma Le F.O.D.I.C. Cameroun MK2 Films TF1 Films Production Wim Wenders Productions
Chocolate, 巧克力, Chocolat – Verbotene Sehnsucht, Çikolata, Czekolada, Čokolada, Čokoláda, 초콜렛, Шоколад, Ciocolată
claire denis' identity, a white woman who grew up in french colonial africa, and how this impacts her approach to portraying cameroon, is a fundamental aspect of what makes chocolat such an important film. the scene where luc, the most destabilizing white presence in the film, reads out an excerpt from a fellow colonizer regarding the psychological effects of colonialism on africans highlights this particularly well. the excerpt claims that inhabiting africa at length caused the author to experience the same attitudes africans have towards europeans, but it is in no way possible for the author or luc to fully grasp the feelings and reactions of africans to colonialism. luc's attempts at dissecting the (post)colonial african's mind and assuming our…
Denis is so good at letting quiet scenes say everything she needs them to.
Protee is practically mute, but he conveys so much desire, anger, and strength with a look that having dialog would only water down the performance. The final scenes, as the airport workers stand in the rain on the field, lets it sink in just how much has changed since France's childhood (and yet, how much seems to be the same, as evidenced by the preceding scenes).
The whole film is a slow, quiet reflection on a period of intensity. It's breath-taking to watch.
more than 30 years later and so much of this — but especially those last 5-10 minutes — holds up to anything Denis has made since.
Claire Denis's directorial debut is something quite unexpected indeed. I was not prepared by the subtle beauty and calm resonance she puts on display here. At once Chocolat could be seen as a serene nostalgic sort of film with no central conflict located in the plot (at least for the majority of it) but then when reexamining the entire film in retrospect its underlying themes of racial boundaries had always been present all along. Denis treats the material with such care and attentiveness which is expected since it is largely autobiographical and based on her own childhood. It's extremely easy to let yourself as a viewer become absorbed in this film and its naturalistic and often passionate lens of the world. I truly loved it.
Claire Denis’ debut film “Chocolat” envelops the awkwardness of growth with the elegance of ending.
Based on Denis’ own childhood spent in various West African countries, “Chocolat” is a semi-autobiographical reminiscence by a white adult woman who has returned to Cameroon, where she lived as a child during the final days of colonialism.
Denis’ aptitude for a physicality that forms sensation and place immediately comes into force with “Chocolat.” The director not only transports through her shots of the vivid African landscapes, but more so with her placement of people within them.
The French colonialists make their pale imitations of beauty, but always to a lesser effect than that achieved by Protée, the black house servant to the central character’s…
With all the raw, unfiltered and sensual nuance of the first work of a great artiste, Claire Denis' debut Chocolat breathes this beautiful coming of age story of colonial life and yearning for a time that has passed.
The film is told as a cohesive and connected set of moments in France's life and spends much of its runtime in the events of her mother, Aimée and their house servant Protée. The on screen chemistry between Aimée and Protée is palpable in what could be viewed as a love/hate relationship, but I tend to think is more love/love, with the heavy burden of class and race division getting in the way of what could have been.
Cameroon's dusty and arid…
Most filmmakers whose upbringings tie directly into the privileges of colonialism—particularly those getting their start in the 20th century—would probably find themselves more comfortable addressing that privilege, if ever, once they've attained a firm grasp of their place within the art form they're using to communicate it. Claire Denis decided to face that beast head-on right from the beginning, and Chocolat, therefore, becomes one of the more assured, thoughtful directorial debuts to come out of its era, haunted by the ghosts of a domineering past whose feeling of isolation only emphasizes its wide-reaching grasp.
Setting her first feature in a remote French administrative outpost in late-'50s occupied Cameroon, Denis unloads her prepubescent avatar as the navigator through whom we experience…
Denis' beautiful debut introduces a range of cinematic obsessions that will be fleshed out over her career. This feels like an early sketch of later themes but already shows a perceptive understanding of masculinity, of power dynamics and of the effects of the colonial mindset.
The narrative style is very Denis, it jumps through time and presents moments more than any kind of conventional continuity. It is a collage of snapshots that evokes collected memories, as the character seemingly trawls through their past - a smart approach as the film is semi-autobiographical.
However, I was never as engaged or as in awe as I have been with so much of Denis work. This is impressive, intelligent and full of well…
"In 'Chocolat,' I always tried to maintain only the perspectives of the whites. I just didn't think I should pretend to understand the black point of view.''
This is Claire Denis, being interviewed by the New York Times in the late 80s, as her debut film is being released. This statement from Denis encapsulates why I think this film works when so many films by white filmmakers set in Africa don't. Many of these films (Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, Out of Africa, Machine Gun Preacher, The Last King of Scotland, Red Sea Diving Resort, just to name a few...) feature white protagonists, often fitting the white savior trope. Denis' film also centers white characters, but in an entirely different…
AKA: Fool’s Paradise.
Hypnotic, sensual, feeling lost and found at the same time. Yep, it must be a Claire Denis film.