Chocolat

No one benefits from being afraid of change. Nothing progresses either. Change is natural part of life that the majority are scared to embrace. Chocolat (2000) is a movie about accepting the new and leaving behind the old. In this film, food serves as a symbol for change.

Chocolat follows the life of a single mother, Vianne, and her pre-teen daughter, Anouk. The time is 1960, and scenes of WWII are still vivid when the pair moves to a conservative town in rural France. When they arrive, they open a chocolate shop across the street from the local church. They are met with harsh criticism for their actions. In this town the Mayor Reynaud is very oppressive. He makes the townspeople attend church every Sunday. He practically writes the sermon for the priest, who has held the position for a very short amount of time and is generally a weakling. When Vianne arrives in town, the mayor welcomed her, but as soon as she politely refuses to attend church, he quickly becomes unfriendly and suspicious. He sees her as a threat to him and the town’s tranquility. However, the town’s “tranquility” isn’t tranquility at all. It’s simply oppression. The townspeople’s lives are run by the mayor and the strict codes of living he enforces. Basically, the town is in permanent rut. Nothing has changed in years, and they are bogged down in old world standards.

As the plot moves on, Vianne starts to fix the town’s problem. She has a knack for knowing what chocolate will be perfect for each person’s problem. This is why in Chocolat, the food represents change and the good in can bring a community or group of people. The opening week of Vianne’s chocolate shop is during the Catholic church’s observation of Lent, a forty-day preparation for Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is celebrated through sacrifice. Followers are asked to give something up for the forty days in order to thank Jesus for giving His life for His followers. Lent is a time for followers to stop their indulgent ways. What Vianne is doing not only changes the dynamics of the town, but it also challenges the church’s ideas about abstinence and chastity. For example, one couple in town is having problems that connect to sexual issues. Vianne gives them a special dark chocolate, which is an aphrodisiac, and the problem is fixed. Throughout the movie the mayor is trying to thwart Vianne and her “devil chocolate.” The mayor obviously represents fear of change. He constantly tries to shut down Vianne’s shop and stop the townspeople from buying it, accepting the change.

In Chocolat, the chocolate is meant to represent change. No matter what it concerns, change is always opposed at first. No one likes the unknown, but it’s necessary to accept it. That is what the moral of this film is. At the end of the movie Vianne holds a Grand Festival of Choclate on Easter Sunday. The townspeople all attend. The festival is meant to serve as symbol of embracing change. Although a new way of life may be hard to accept sometimes it’s what is needed for life to be better. The food in this film represented that change. Now if only every difficult change left the sweet taste of chocolate on our tongues.

-Regina M. Gonzalez