Chocolat: From Page to Screen
Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp Star in Adaptation of Joanne Harris' novel Chocolat
Apr 29, 2009
In Hollywood, a quiet tale must often be amplified to attract the attention of the masses, a tricky business when it's an adaptation of a well-loved story. Readers are often ready to dismiss any interpretation as inferior to the written word. Although Chocolat (2000) has significant differences from Joanne Harris' novel, it remains true to its characters and the basic outline of the tale.
Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp star in Lasse Hallstrom's film that manages to capture Harris' rich prose and its intoxicating tapestry of imagery that tinges the tale and its characters with mystery—all to the haunting, yet whimsical gypsy score that fully captures the essence of the story.
Chocolat is the story of Vianne Rocher (Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), who travel on the fringe of the sly North wind from country to country, village to village, setting up chocolateries and dispersing ancient cacao remedies to needy souls. Wrapped in red cloaks and braving the blustery wind and swirling snow, they enter their latest destination a few weeks shy of Easter at the devout little village of Lansquenet.
This village offers a new challenge as they gain immediate opposition from mayor Paul de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), whose power grips the town like a choking weed. He is appalled to discover Vianne is planning a grand, pagan chocolate festival to coincide with Easter Sunday. He is determined to drive Vianne and Anouk and their immoral practices out of his village, but will he succeed?
Juliette Binoche as Vianne Rocher
Juliette Binoche portrays the free-spirited, yet strong-willed Vianne with the vibrance and elegance described in the novel. In the film, the nature of Vianne's mysterious talents and wanderlust are explained as part of her heritage, removing some of the intrigue that is crucial to her character. This, however, also helps keep Vianne more intimately connected to the audience while remaining a mystery to the villagers of Lansquenet.
Vianne gives small comforts through instinctively guessing her customers' favorites, doling out neat packages of delectable confections to soothe the weary aches of life and uplift the spirit. She is determined to make life work in this village, for she doesn't want Anouk to grow with the loneliness that haunted so many nights with her own mother on their travels.
Alfred Molina as Reynaud
One of the most crucial changes from page to screen is that Reynaud is made the village mayor, and not the priest. By this change, he is made all the more powerful, because he manages to control both the town and its church. Hallstrom also cleverly avoids pitting the heroine of the novel against the Catholic church, instead making the youthful priest Pere Henri (Hugh O'Conor) an eager-to-please lad who struggles to wriggle out from under the thumb of the overbearing mayor. Henri even suggests that God would disagree with Reynaud's reaction to the outsiders infiltrating the village.
Alfred Molina's slick black hair and sleek mustache almost paint him as a cartoonish villian plotting to blow up the world to the tune of his maniacal laugh. He overcomes this, however, by offsetting his character's machinations with turns that are comic and even vulnerable.
Johnny Depp as Roux
While Vianne is swept into Lansquenet by the sly North wind on a chilly day, Roux and his crew of river gypsies drift in on the calm waters of the river Tannes. Like Vianne, Roux is met with opposition and spurs a moral campaign to drive the outsiders out of the village for fear the unworthy thieves will pillage and destroy Lansquenet's goods while Vianne corrupts their morals. In the film, Roux's dry wit is infused with Vianne's calm restraint, while Vianne is given some of Roux's volatile fire. Depp is a smooth pirate who melts into his performance with ease, but still brings a spark of passion when paired with Binoche.
The Flock
In Chocolat, the villagers of Lansquenet shuffle throughout the story like a flock of disoriented sheep, pulled by temptation and loneliness to Vianne's chocolaterie and driven by guilt to the confessional.
Lena Olin is Josephine Muscat, town thief and wife of the abusive cafe owner. Olin embraces her wounded character's array of emotions. Her heartbreak is evident in her eyes which switch from revealing vulnerability to intensity to absolute panic within a mere blink.
Dame Judi Dench portrays the stubborn Armande Voizin with an air of steely defiance that even Vianne cannot fully penetrate. Armande is determined to live life by her own terms, especially as she succumbs to diabetes and resists her daughter's urging to enter a nursing home. Unlike in the novel, we never see the full scope of Armande's character, and she primarily remains an obstinate old woman who never fully reveals herself.
The opposite is true for Armande's daugher Caroline Clairmont (Carrie-Anne Moss). Rather than sweeping through the town with her “Bible groupies” in tow, Moss plays the character with a sense of vulnerability and loneliness. She has lost her husband and finds she is losing control over everything else in her life.
The rest of the cast includes Peter Stormare as the fuming imbecile Serge Muscat, whose cunning is lost in translation and replaced by stupidity; John Wood plays the soft-spoken, dog-loving Guillame, and a love interest is created for him in the form of silver-screen legend Leslie Caron as Madame Audel.
Victoire Thivisol is the doe-eyed Anouk, whose free spirit is tempered by a measure of seriousness that lends to her character's increasing loneliness.
Chocolat stands on its own as a worthwhile film, but also doesn't pale too much in comparison with Harris' novel. Although the film delivers different plot twists and some altered characterizations, it upholds the core themes of the novel and stays true to its characters.
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