History Film / Chocolat

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: While Josephine is grateful that Vianne took her in after Josephine left her husband, [[spoiler:she feels awkward on seeing that Vianne has returned, knowing that they had both loved Roux. And more so, that Roux had chosen Vianne]]

* ThisIsUnforgivable: When the Comte discovers what [[spoiler:Serge]] has done [[spoiler:to the boats]], he realizes that [[spoiler:the latter]] is beyond any possible redemption [[spoiler:so, unable to denounce him for fear that people will believe that it was Reynaud himself who ordered him to burn the boats, he banishes Serge forever from the town]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: Subverted; Rosette has ''cri du chat'' or "cry of the cat". Vianne reveals this in a flashback. Played straight with [[spoiler: Thierry's son]].

* Actor Allusion:

** After one of the villager's husband eats some cacao nibs and is consumed with passion, he begins to shower his wife with kisses and the wife manages to close the bathroom window before the scene fades to black.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Averted. [[spoiler: While raw cacao (in food, drinks, ect) can treat or controll diabetes naturally, it's the sweet decadent milk chocolate Armande willingly continues to eat that aggravates her diabetic health]].

%% * SecretlyDying: Armande is outed by her daughter Caroline that she has very severe diabetes, she takes insulin injections and that she could be blind within a year. Despite her health, Armande wishes to live out her last years eating chocolate.
* SexyDiscretionShot: Just as Vianne and Roux start kissing, it cuts to the outside of the boat and moaning is heard.

* PrimalScene: As a teenager, Reynaud walked in on his mother [[spoiler:having a tryst with the priest who had been his mentor]]. The discovery resulted in [[spoiler:the priest suffering a shock-induced stroke and falling into the coma he remains in during the events of ''Chocolat'', the divorce of Reynaud's parents]], and Reynaud being sent away to study in Paris.

* PrimalScene: As a teenager, Reynaud walked in on his mother [[spoiler:having a tryst with the priest who had been his mentor]].

* BlackMail: Why Reynaud leaves Armande Voizin alone; she remembers that he [[spoiler: tossed a MolotovCocktail that killed a gypsy couple in their boat]] and could easily spill the beans and ruin his reputation.
* BrokenPedestal: While Vianne still loves her mother and honors her memory, she eventually figures out that [[spoiler:Jeanne kidnapped her as a baby from a nearby neighbor named Michele Caillou. The reason for them traveling around the world was partly for Jeanne to run away from her crime since she knows it was a selfish thing to do despite her morphine-induced justifications that Michele left "Sylviane" in the car for a few minutes and couldn't love her enough]]. Vianne admits that as a mother now, she would be terrified of anything similar happening to Anouk, and comes to admit that [[spoiler:Jeanne did a terrible thing to her and Michele]].

* RewatchBonus: Vianne recalls how one time, her mother confessed to a priest about something she had did. He said that she must surrender Vianne to the proper authorities for the child's sake and what she did was a sin; Jeanne ran into the night with her daughter. She, and the readers, assume it's because Jeanne had Vianne out of wedlock. [[spoiler:The truth is more complicated; ''Chocolate'' has Vianne finding newspaper clippings her mother kept of a child named Sylviane Callou who was kidnapped from her mother's car when the latter was picking up a prescription. Jeanne had confessed that she kidnapped the baby, and the priest reasonably was pointing out that it was a "sin" to steal someone else's child and leave the real parents bereft. ''The Girl With No Shadow'' confirms that Jeanne did commit this crime]].

* CoolOldLady: Armande Voizin in ''Chocolat''. Framboise in ''The Girl With No Shadow''

* TrailersAlwaysLie: Some
s suggested that the movie was about someone selling aphrodisiacs disguised as chocolate. This happened in the film, sort of, but only once, and it didn't become a plot point.

* AnAesop: You don't have to follow familial traditions forever. [[Spoiler: Soon, Vianne learns this and stays in one place]].

Primarily remembered today as having been nominated for several UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture, in what commentators then and now regard as the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} example of Creator/MiramaxFilms' notorious Oscar campaigns; this resulted in a huge backlash that has [[NeverLiveItDown dogged the film ever since]]. Based on a novel by Joanne Harris [[AdaptationDisplacement which apparently nobody reads]], with all the NightmareFuel taken out. Creator/LeslieCaron has a small role as Madame Audel.

* AdultFear:
** Your local priest may be a WellIntentionedExtremist who believes in BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork and will turn a blind eye to DomesticAbuse, so long as the Bible is followed to the letter.
** For Caroline Clairmont, her estranged mother is a diabetic who doesn't take care of herself and refuses to let others boss her around.
** Serge setting fire to the boats while Josephine and Anouk are sleeping. They escape unscathed but everyone else was shaken up. For a moment, Vianne had believed her daughter had died in the fires.

* AdultFear:
** Your local priest may be a WellIntentionedExtremist who believes in BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork and will turn a blind eye to DomesticAbuse, so long as the Bible is followed to the letter.
** For Vianne, the fact that Anouk is growing up and into a different person from the innocent little girl that she used to be. This fear comes to life in ''The Girl With No Shadow". Anouk becomes increasingly disappointed that her mother wants a conventional life without magic and denies it, which allows Zozie to get close to both of them.
** For Caroline Clairmont, her estranged mother is a diabetic who doesn't take care of herself and refuses to let others boss her around. Caro is a {{Jerkass}} but when her mother has a fit and nearly dies from not taking insulin, Caro's OhCrap and calling for her mother makes her quite empathetic. There's also the fact that she attends her mother's party and feels guilty on learning [[spoiler:her mother deliberately planned to die.]]
** Vianne's mother Jeanne [[spoiler: isn't actually her mother; Jeanne stole "Sylviane Caillou" from another woman, Michele, who lived in the apartment across]]. As an adult, Vianne found articles that Jeanne kept of the incident, and [[spoiler: Michele is close to TearsOfJoy when she and Vianne reconcile]].
** Her daughter Rosette has ''cri du chat'', a real syndrome that is incurable.
** In ''The Girl With No Shadow'' a priest and a social worker tracked her down and tried to take Rosette and Anouk away.

* InsertDouble: In several of the kitchen scenes, you see a woman's hands stirring chocolate. These are not Creator/JulietteBinoche's hands, but an extra's. Vianne's bracelet was added to make it look like her.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: Some previews suggested that the movie was about someone selling aphrodisiacs disguised as chocolate. This happened in the film, sort of, but only once, and it didn't become a plot point.

%% * InspectorJavert: The Comte.
%% * LeaveYourQuestTest

* UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}: Roux & Co. A band of river Romani gypsies that camp near the village.

Using the secret recipes of her mother's people, Vianne opens a chocolaterie during Lent, earning the Comte's disapproval. Although at first, the townspeople give her a chilly reception, they slowly warm up to her as they are tempted by her fabulous concoctions. She convinces abused wife Josephine Muscat (Creator/LenaOlin) to leave her drunk husband Serge (Creator/PeterStormare) and come work with her at the chocolaterie. She reunites young Luc Clairmont with his grandmother Armande (Creator/JudiDench), a passionate and sarcastic woman deemed a bad influence by Luc's conservative mother, Caroline (Creator/CarrieAnneMoss). Hidden passions left buried for years are brought to the surface with the help of the chocolate.

Using the secret recipes of her mother's people, Vianne opens a chocolaterie during Lent, earning the Comte's disapproval. Although at first, the townspeople give her a chilly reception, they slowly warm up to her as they are tempted by her fabulous concoctions. She convinces abused wife Josephine Muscat (Creator/LenaOlin) to leave her drunk husband Serge (Creator/PeterStormare) and come work with her at the chocolaterie. She reunites young Luc Clairmont with his grandmother Armande (Creator/JudiDench), a passionate and sarcastic woman deemed a bad influence by Luc's conservative mother, Caroline. Hidden passions left buried for years are brought to the surface with the help of the chocolate.

Although she changes everyone else's lives in the process, Vianne herself is changed by the people she meets in the town, specifically Roux - with whom she develops a romantic relationship - Josephine, and Armande. Whether or not Vianne can overcome her wanderlust is as big a question as whether severity or joy will finally win out over the town.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Chocolat.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I have a knack for guessing people's favorites."'']]

''Chocolat'' is a 2000 British-American romantic comedy-drama film based on a novel by the same name by Joanne Harris, and was directed by Creator/LasseHallstrom.

Once upon a time, a European pharmacist/explorer fell in love with and married a South American woman who was destined from birth to move as the wind blows, sharing her "ancient cacao remedies" with unhappy people. He brought her to Europe, but she didn't stay with him, departing with her daughter to move from place to place with the "clever North wind."

Her daughter Vianne (Creator/JulietteBinoche), and her own daughter Anouk (who hopes to settle down someday) live this same lifestyle, and at the beginning of the film move into a stuffy French village run by the Comte de Reynaud (Creator/AlfredMolina), a man who has stricter moral standards than the local priest and holds ''everyone'' to them.

* An Aesop: You don't have to follow familial traditions forever. [[Spoiler: Soon, Vianne learns this and stays in one place]].

* ChildrenAreCruel: Anouk becomes subject to classmates bullying her for having a imaginary friend that is a kangaroo.

* VillainousBreakdown: The Comte has a gentle one at the end of the movie, where he [[spoiler:breaks into the chocolate shop intending to destroy it... then he accidentally tastes the chocolate. The rush of simple delight he feels opens a floodgate for all the emotions he's been keeping bottled up inside, and he ends up devouring chocolate [[InelegantBlubbering while sobbing]], until he finally curls up in the remains of the Easter display and falls asleep, to be awoken the next morning by Vianne and an effervescent tablet in glass of water.]] So it could be said that he gets his just desserts. Vianne is kind to him though and says she won't tell anyone.

%% * PreApprovedSermon: The Comte gives this treatment to the priest.

%% * UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}: Roux & Co.
%% * ScrewDestiny: All over.
%% * SecretlyDying: Armande is outed by her daughter Caroline that she has very severe diabetes, she takes insulin and she could be blind within a year. Despite her health, Armande wishes to live out her last years eating chocolate.

* AshesToCrashes: in a non-comedic sense. Vianne decides that she cannot win against Reynaud's strict traditions, and decides to move on. Anouk refuses to go, and during a scuffle, the urn containing the ashes of Vianne's mother falls and shatters.