A wonderful feast for the eyes - STAR BYTES by Butch Francisco

My biggest fantasy in the world is not to be afraid of gaining weight and eat all kinds of chocolates to my heart’s content.

Actually, I like anything with chocolate in it: Cakes, ice cream – even chocolate drinks like Milo or Ovaltine. And the chocolate doesn’t have to be imported. I’d be perfectly happy with a bar of Goya candy.

The movie Chocolat, therefore, intrigued me no end. The film’s trailer and print ads, if I may say so, beckoned to me like the aroma of freshly whisked tsokolate espresso – straight from the batirol, that wooden device used to make hot chocolate drinks frothier and creamier.

But chocolate-lover or not, Chocolat is a must-see for any lover of film. The fact that it was a Best Picture nominee in the last Oscar Awards race – with four other nominations: for music, screenplay and Best Actress (Juliette Binoche) and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench) – makes it one of the most important films of the year.

Based on the novel by Joanne Harris and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who also did wonderful work on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and The Cider House Rules two years ago, the story of Chocolat is told in a delectably smooth and easy manner on screen – very much like a piece of chocolate-coated bonbon that deliciously melts in your mouth.

The movie is set in 1959 – in a small and rustic French town where everyone knows each other. Life in this relatively peaceful and backward place is stirred only when Juliette Binoche and her daughter, Victoire Thivisol (she starred in Ponette), move in to set up a chocolate store in the middle of town. Binoche is immediately looked upon with suspicion by the town’s self-righteous leader, Alfred Molina, because 1) She has a kid, but has never been married; 2) She does not go to church and 3) She decides to set up a confectionery right in the middle of Lent – that period of the year when people are not supposed to indulge themselves in sexual or gustatory pleasures.

In spite of Molina’s black propaganda against her, Binoche’s business still thrives. She also makes friends with some of the town’s characters: the stubborn and independent Judi Dench, who is having a rift with her straight-as-a-stick daughter, Carrie Ann Moss; the battered wife Lena Olin who wants to get away from her brutish husband, Peter Stormare and an old pensioner, John Wood, who is trying to win the heart of widow Leslie Caron (yes, the Leslie Caron of Gigi and An American in Paris).

Halfway through the film, Johnny Depp appears in the film as a vagabond who later falls in love with Binoche.

The showing of Chocolat in Metro Manila theaters is quite timely because it takes up the issue of morality which – as we all know – is one of the current topics often discussed in today’s talk shows and newspapers.

In Chocolat, the parish priest is a mere puppet of the town’s leader – which is the reverse here because it is the Church that seems to be meddling and dictating on the affairs of the State. Some of the dialogues mouthed by Alfred Molina in the film are practically the same lines being uttered by some of the sanctimonious members of our society.

But in spite of the film’s serious and controversial topic, Chocolat remains lightweight and all froth. I’m not saying, however, that it is a bad movie. But compared to other serious films about food – Babette’s Feast, Like Water for Chocolate, etc. – Chocolat comes out like a pale and watered-down Ricoa drink. Aside from the morality issue and some token scenes concerning mother-daughter relationships, the film is practically just a cooking demo on how to make bonbons.

But it’s a wonderful feast for the eyes. And in spite of all the sweet meats laid out in front of you, somehow you don’t feel sick looking at all those confections on screen – unlike in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where you want to drown Gene Wilder in this river of molten cocoa.

The lively performances of Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench also sweeten your viewing pleasure – in particular, Dame Judi who does wonders with any acting piece that comes her way.

I also find it quite difficult to accept the fact that Julia Roberts (in Erin Brokovich) won over Juliette Binoche in the last Academy Awards.

Julia Roberts, of course, also gave a remarkable performance in Erin Brokovich. It’s a very showy role – which was probably why she easily impressed most Academy Awards voters with her acting (and aside from the fact that, well, she’s Julia Roberts).

But the role of Juliette Binoche has a lot more nuances to it. And what Binoche gives in the film is a very quiet, but very effective performance as an individual so ahead of her time – somebody who doesn’t always find it necessary to conform to the man-made norms of this hypocritical world.

The manner in which Binoche breezes through her role in Chocolat is so refreshing. Beside her, Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich comes out like a discarded half-empty bag of moldy M&Ms.