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Film: Chocolat

I have a knack for guessing people's favorites.

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 (Juliette Binoche) is the focus of this 2000 film, adapted from a novel by Joanne Harris. She and her 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 (Alfred Molina), a man who has stricter moral standards than the local priest and holds everyone to them.

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 (Lena Olin) to leave her drunk husband Serge (Peter Stormare) and come work with her at the chocolaterie. She reunites young Luc Clairmont with his grandmother Armande (Judi Dench), 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.

The Comte fears that Vianne is a threat to his control on the town and behaves accordingly, warning all the townspeople of the dangerous and evil nature of her chocolate. He spreads rumors about her atheism and liberal lifestyle, and even uses the local priest as a mouthpiece for his own ideas.

Conflict is further stirred up by the arrival of a group of gypsies, led by the impetuous and handsome Roux (Johnny Depp). Vianne, recognizing fellow outcasts, is the only shop owner in the town not to "boycott immorality" and refuse them service. She and Armande even contrive to unite them with the more liberal members of the town during Armande's 70th birthday celebration.

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.

Primarily remembered today as having been nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in what commentators then and now regard as the most egregious example of Miramax Films' notorious Oscar campaigns; this resulted in a huge backlash that has dogged the film ever since. Based on a novel by Joanne Harris which nobody reads, with all the Nightmare Fuel taken out.

Tropes:

Ashes to Crashes: in a non-comedic sense.
Blithe Spirit - Vianne.
Broken Bird: Josephine, who is escaping an abusive marriage.
But Now I Must Go: narrowly averted at the end of the film.
Cool Old Lady: Armande is an awesome grandmother (buying her grandson a book of Rimbaud's poetry) and friend, celebrating the finer things of life up until the end.
Covers Always Lie: The DVD cover (above) would have you think that Roux is a major character alongside Vianne. In reality, he doesn't show up until a good hour into the film and even then his scenes are fairly limited as the love interest and nothing more
Deadpan Snarker: Roux, most of the time. Once Josephine starts talking, she turns into one fairly quickly.
December-December Romance: Guillaume Blerot and the widow Audel.
Disappeared Dad: Anouk's father is only mentioned in the context of the scandal of Vianne being an unmarried woman with a daughter.
Disneyfication: The anti-religious theme of the movie adaptation was softened by replacing the bitter churchman of the book with a town representative. Also, the town itself was made to look drab and ugly in the opening acts, when the very first scene in the book describes the heroine and her daughter watching a bright parade through the streets of the same town. The novel ended with a brief, drunken hookup between the heroine and a male supporting character, leaving her pregnant as she left the village to continue drifting. In the movie, the relationship between her and the man is developed into a full romantic subplot, he returns at the end, and the heroine decides she doesn't need to leave the village, breaking the cycle.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Exact words used by Armande when Vianne learns she's diabetic.
Even Evil Has Standards: When the Comte finds out that Serge started the fire at the dock in a bid to kill his wife, Vianne, and the Gypsies living there, the Comte is angry enough to tell Serge he is forever banished from the village.
Everything's Better with Chocolate: Pretty much the whole point.
Mr. Fanservice: This film propelled Johnny Depp straight back into the sex-symbol territory he had fought so hard to get out of with his earlier films. He's held this title ever since, albeit in an extremely non-traditional way.
Faith Heel Turn: Averted with the Comte de Reynaud, who becomes a better person when he relaxes the more fanatical elements of his faith.
Food Porn: Especially the slow-motion eating sequences.
Forbidden Fruit: The villagers are tempted to break their Lenten fast with the decadent chocolate
The Fundamentalist: The Comte de Reynaud
Good Is Boring: The heroine, Vianne, does not conform to the village's definition of "good".
Holier Than Thou: The Comte de Reynaud.
Imaginary Friend: Anouk's kangaroo, Pantoufle, who seems a little less imaginary at the end was a way for her to cope with moving from place to place so much. He leaves when she doesn't need him anymore.
Inspector Javert: Again, the Comte.
Leave Your Quest Test
Lighter and Fluffier: The writer of the original novel explicitly compares it to "milk chocolate", while the source material is darker and bitterer with more of an edge.
Magic Realism: Vianne's chocolate and her ability to guess people's favorites are examples of this.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Vianne is this to the whole village.
Miramax Films: They produced the movie. ~~And ran the Oscar campaign.~~
Narrator All Along: We only discover at the end of the film that the narrator is Anouk.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Most characters manage to sound as if they at least knew what a French accent sounded like (it helped that Juliette Binoche is actually French, and so was about half the cast). Johnny Depp, however, decided his character was Irish. This is somewhat justified by his lifestyle as a gypsy.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: There's at least one whole scene where Alfred Molina completely drops his otherwise fairly convincing French accent and reverts back to his native London accent.
Oscar Bait - It didn't win any Oscars, but did get five nominations including Best Picture. That it got those five nominations at all, over what many viewed as superior films, became a major point of contention. There's no denying, though, that Judi Dench can do no wrong and her nomination, at least, was well-deserved.
Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions - Used as a way for the author to say religion is evil/encumbering on society in the original book.
- Averted in the movie. Although the film doesn't see anything wrong with breaking holy fasts or otherwise defying your religion in pursuit of happiness, it doesn't condemn religion outright; the priest is portrayed sympathetically and points out by the end that religion should be based on love and compassion instead of discrimination and rigidity.
Preacher Man: Pere Henri, a lovable young preacher who not only pays close attention to his flock's spiritual needs, but the quality of their lives. He's just a bit of an Extreme Doormat when it comes to the seemingly inhumanly devout Comte de Reynaud. Upon seeing him passed out in the chocolaterie's window, he realizes that the man has as much need of guidance as the rest, and starts treating him as another supplicant. Ultimately, he's the one who drops the film's anvil: faith isn't just supposed to condemn sins, it's supposed to encourage virtues - above all, compassion and tolerance.
Pre Approved Sermon: The mayor gives this treatment to the priest.
Pygmalion Snapback: The Comte's efforts to change Josephine's husband don't work out.
Romani: Roux & Co.
Screw Destiny: All over.
Secretly Dying: At least implied regarding Armande's diabetes.
Sleeping Dummy: Luc pads his bed (with crumpled drawing paper) so he can sneak out to his grandmother's birthday party.
Straw Atheist: Vianne to the villagers.
Boy 1: I hear she's an atheist.
Boy 2: What's that?
Boy 1: I don't know.
- Given that she practices various traditional magics and is going to hold a fertility celebration on Easter, while Vianne is labeled an atheist she probably practices pagan (in a broad sense of the word) beliefs, though she would never label herself as such.
Supreme Chef: Vianne's creations are mouth-watering enough to win over an entire town of strict Catholics during Lent.
Trailers Always Lie: 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.
Villainous Breakdown: The Comte has a gentle one at the end of the movie, where he 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 and 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 a glass of milk. So it could be said that he gets his just desserts.
Well-Intentioned Extremist - The Comte, arguably. Though he's definitely on the low end of extreme. After all, morals are by definition good things, aren't they?
- Any good thing can become bad if taken too far.