Chocolat (2000) (Spec) [VHS]

Chocolat (2000) (Spec) [VHS]
by Lasse Hallstr?m

Chocolat (2000) (Spec) [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Alfred Molina, Antonio Gil (VI), Carrie-Anne Moss, Judi Dench, Juliette Binoche
Director: Lasse Hallstr?m
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Special Edition
Running Time: 105 minutes
Release Date: 2001-12-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Studio: Walt Disney Video

VHS Movie Reviews of Chocolat (2000) (Spec) [VHS]

Movie Review: French interpretation of the issues of being different, and the society
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a poetic, visually stunning movie with quite a number of really good feamle roles, fine performed. There is so much poetry and magic, the movie reminded me of Latin American literature very much. The same sense of marriage of the real and the unreal, coexisting in harmony.

A young women, (who is also a single mother),a daugther of an European man and a Mexican curandera, arrives in a small traditional town in France, during the time of Lent . Not only she dares to open a chocolate shop during this time, but in additon her creations are considered kind of excentric, the same as the decor incorporating artifacts showing clearly Precolumbian heritage.The chocolate store owner breaks routines people had so far, and she is also able to help people hwo have psychological problems, healig human relations. But her otherness is not welcomed at first, people are distrustful, and she is a percived threat to their traditional ways.But they slowly warm up to her.

But there is a problem: the local aristocrat, a count who enjoys to infulence the life in the town, is hostile toward the newcomer, and has a very strong influence on the local Catholic priest.The count is anaware how bad his plotting is, until one day he is faced witt the results.A sad story about a strong, dominant persoanlity and weak, gulible folowing.But in this conflict, clash of two cultures, one traditional and one alternative, and the opposition bewteen the creative and the routine, it is the other, the revolutionary is the side which will be victorius. The count is hostile, she just lives her live according to her conscience.And we sympathise with her right away.

This movie is touching deeper societal problems, yet is very entertaining. The main focus is xenophobia, but also the appreacaiton of learnig across the cultures, and the need of positve influeneces of variosu kinds: will be this another culture, or just a different personality, or different kind of thinking.This movie, becasue is so poetic, (but maintains the integrtity of the story), is an ode to an opend mind.A movie a to enjoy and savour, a bitter-sweet one.And Juliette Binoche is wonderful as always.

Movie Review: pleasant and perfect
Summary: 5 Stars

I will only add my voice to the numerous positive reviews already listed. This is my favorite movie. The characters are well crafted and real. The themes are timeless. The music and cinematography stunning. This movie is to film what artisan chocolate is to sweets.

If you enjoy this movie than try reading the books - Chocolat and Girl With No Shadow.

Movie Review: My wife loves it.
Summary: 5 Stars

Chick flick. Gift for my wife, and she loves it. It makes her smile just to think about it, and that works for me.

Movie Review: Superb, great movie
Summary: 5 Stars

Chocolat was a great movie. I am a big fan of Johnny Depp.
This movie had a little bit of everything. Comedy, drama and a love story.
I recommend this movie.

Movie Review: A syrupy affair
Summary: 1 Stars

Before I get hit by the first rotten eggs, let me state that I am a foreigner living in France who likes good chocolate and finds lots of it in this part of the world, who buys his wine in the Gers region, somewhere near Lansquennet-sur-chose, in that beautiful part of France between Bordeaux and Toulouse, someone who has often walked along trails others have avoided - yet I feel that this is a lousy movie.

The problem with this film is that it cannot make up its mind as to whether it wants to be a fairy tale or a political pamphlet and the rivalry between these two objectives makes for a lot of jarring noise.

It starts out as a fairy tale with two little red riding-hoods, mother and daughter, arriving in a kind of petrified town. Their vocation seems to be the deliverance of the population from their self-imposed (senti)mental sklerosis by means of a magic drug, presented in a variety of forms to suit the various symptoms of the disease. A little pepper-laced chocolate will help a desperate housewife, for example, to revitalize a lazy husband.

To make sure the spectator understands the message of the movie, the characters are presented in the most exaggerated manner. The good people are frighteningly good, the villains ridiculously villainous, the artists wonderfully artistic. This, then, makes it easy to include a few subliminal messages aimed at promoting the pleasant idea that the ultimate goal of our life is enjoyment. Anyone who thinks otherwise is tarred and feathered - a rather unpleasant treatment even if the tar, in this case, is chocolate syrup.

Such a fate actually awaits the mayor of the town, a real model of a hypocritical brute whose family has been ruling the area for hundreds of years (the French Revolution notwithstanding) and even went so far as to drive all those gentle, fun-loving Huguenots into exile, back in the 17th century. He faults little red riding-hood for setting up her business during lent, he edits the sermons of the young priest (who is actually a very nice chap and later revolts) and he is behind a pogrom organized against this bunch of foreigners who come drifting down the river with their house-boat and dare throw a party during Holy Week.

The experienced movie-goer has been waiting for such an explosion to strike and just did not know whether the chocolate shop would be blown up or the house-boat set on fire. In the end it is the house-boat, with the two lovers (little red riding-hood and one of the drifters) inside and but for the grace of God (if there is one) our valiant patissi?re is saved from drifting out of sight like Ophelia in a pre-Raphaelite painting.
It all takes place in an imaginary setting, unrelated to anything in the real France, the chocolate shop is mysteriously dark, the town frozen in stone without any sign of vegetation and with the church spire looming up at the end of every street like a watch-tower at Guantanamo; actual life can be found only down by the riverside where the trees are green even in early spring.

And the actors? The men obviously suffer from the greasy hair that is de rigueur for a film set in 1959 and thus look a little silly, be they the friendly tramp or the ugly mayor. Juliette Binoche, pretty as a picture, apparently brought along, in her little suitcase, a whole collection of evening dresses to wear when mixing her wares or when divining the secret wishes of her customers by means of a magical disk that once belonged to a Maya priest. There is Judi Dench, wonderful in the role of the mean-looking but kind matron who owns the patisserie; she is not afraid of making herself look old, something that really makes her a good actress.

But for all the actors' talent and their efforts, this film is miles away from the poetry of "Babette's feast" or the highly recommendable farce "Le bonheur est dans le pr?"; this latter film, by the way, is set in the real Gers region of which "Chocolat" is only a poor pastiche.

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Summary of Chocolat (2000) (Spec) [VHS]

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards(R) including Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche -- THE ENGLISH PATIENT), and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench -- SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), CHOCOLAT is the beautiful and captivating comedy from the acclaimed director of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES! Nobody could have imagined the impact that the striking Vianne (Binoche) would make when she arrived in a tranquil, old-fashioned French town. In her very unusual chocolate shop, Vianne begins to create mouth-watering confections that almost magically inspire the straitlaced villagers to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness! But it is not until another stranger, the handsome Roux (Johnny Depp -- SLEEPY HOLLOW), arrives in town that Vianne is finally able to recognize her own desires!

With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallstr?m, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon

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