Beautiful, moving film.

A Masterpiece!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Despite needing something more for me in its wrap-up, Claire Denis' Chocolat is in all ways a really good look into Cameroon and France's colonial history. Unlike the case of some films made in the US, it doesn't hammer the audience with a message about white people's ugliness, instead it just carefully shows them, and sort of leaves the audience the responsibility to observe and be horrified. It's amazing how a narrative like this with a white lead is so carefully handled that it doesn't make excuses for that privilege, and doesn't paint her as an exception or, a favorite Hollywood trope, the white savior. Isaach De Bankolé is also key here. When his character cracks it's not obvious why he does, but it's in the little expressions and reactions to the things he hears and witnesses that should explain it.

The story is about a little girl growing up in colonial Africa, but it is so much more than that.Anyone growing up in the South would experience the same things. A longing for another, one of a different race, that cannot be consummated. Even a glance is forbidden. There are no words needed. Their facial expressions say everything.It is the story of a black servant, Protée (Isaach De Bankolé) and a white woman, Aimée (Giulia Boschi). Their desire for each other is so strong that they torture each other because they cannot have each other.The little girl, France (Cécile Ducasse) is lonely and spends all her time with Protée. She really can't see this dance.One of the more irritating aspects of the film is the laziness of the colonials. They cannot even get undressed for bed by themselves. There world is about to end; they just don't know it yet. Their racist attitudes will be erased with their presence.I think I would like to visit this Africa. It seems so quiet; especially at night when you only hear the animals.

Claire Denis' debut is both a brave and self-assured one. In this depiction of life towards the end of French colonialist Cameroon, she explores the relationships between men and women, black and white.With the black servant 'Protée' as the film's primary object of desire and oppression, the film enters taboo territory from the beginning. Denis builds a picture of life through a series of character relationships that keep the informed viewer fixed to the screen. The mood of the film is captured perfectly by the camera-work and (lack of) lighting.A great discourse.

The box cover read nothing but how this film was full of passion and erotic over tones. Over tones? There weren't any Under tones let alone over tones! Yes, the story has obvious moments of forbidden passion between the French woman and the "black" slave / servant, but nothing goes beyond that.The entire movies leads up to expectations and then goes nowhere. If you look close, you can see moments of symbolism, but nothing terrific. Chocolat isn't French New Wave, but it is a french film. Besides there being a number of French characters in the film that nobody can relate with, you got a French Housewife that has nothing else to do but order her "slave" around. I said it before and I'll say it again, Chocolat has as much passion that your average funeral does. Whether for 1988 or 2004, you need moments of sexual tension other than a simple touch to be considered exotic for the audience.