Chocolat (1988 film)

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This article is about the 1988 movie. For the 2000 movie based on the Joanne Harris novel and directed by Lasse Hallström, see Chocolat (2000 film).

Chocolat
English-language film poster
Directed by	Claire Denis
Produced by	Alain Belmondo, Gérard Crosnier,
Written by	Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
Starring	François Cluzet, Isaach De Bankolé, Giulia Boschi
Music by	Abdullah Ibrahim
Cinematography	Robert Alazraki
Editing by	Monica Coleman, Claudine Merlin, Sylvie Quester
Distributed by	Orion Classics
Release date(s)	1988
Running time	105 min.
Country	France, West Germany, Cameroon
Language	French
IMDb profile

Chocolat is a 1988 movie, directed by Claire Denis, about a French family that lives in colonial Cameroon. Marc and Aimée Dalens (François Cluzet and Giulia Boschi) are the parents of France (Cécile Ducasse), a young girl who befriends Protée (Isaach De Bankolé), a Cameroon native that is the family's household servant.

[edit] Plot

The film begins with an adult woman named France, walking down a road toward Douala, Cameroon. While walking, she is picked up by William J. Park (Emmet Judson Williamson), an African American man who is driving to Limbe with his son. As they ride, France's mind drifts and we see her as a young girl in Northern French Cameroon where her father was a colonial administrator. The story is conducted through the eyes of young France, showing her friendship with the "houseboy", Protée, as well the sexual tension between him and her young and beautiful mother, Aimée. The conflict of the film comes from the discomfort created as France and her mother attempt to move past the established boundaries between themselves and the native Africans. This is brought to a head through Luc Segalen (Jean-Claude Adelin), a Western drifter who stays with the Dalens family after a small aircraft crashes nearby. He makes public the evident sexual attraction between Aimée and Protée, prompting the mother to act on her desire. This pushes him over the edge and causes him not only to lash out against Luc, who brought on this disruption of the house's balance, but also lose his in-house job and be moved to work outdoors in the garage as a mechanic.

The title Chocolat comes from the 1950s slang meaning "to be cheated," and thus refers to the status in French Cameroon of being black and being cheated. Towards the end of the film, France's father reveals a central theme of the film as he explains to her what the horizon line is. He tells her that it is a line that is there but not there, a symbol for the racial boundary that exists in the country. This line is not a physical one but is still one that people widely recognize.