Chocolat
Claire Denis is a filmmaker whose work has been a blind spot for me over the years. It is time to begin rectifying that, although I wonder if her debut feature, “Chocolat,” was the way to go. It’s an assured film, sensual and has some ideas about memory, racial tensions in African countries populated by whites, and the way a child can view the world that are interesting, but it does not really hold one’s attention easily. I’ve seen “High Life,” though, so I know there’s better to come from her in the future.
The film begins with a woman (France, played by Mireille Perrier) returning to Camaroon on a trip. She is offered a ride by a man with his son, and she gets in. She is going back to her childhood home, and memories come flooding back. Her family lived in a French colony in the 1950s, and her father was a colonel administrator often away for work, so it was France (Cécile Ducasse) and her mother, Aimee (Giulia Boschi), at home with the servants. One of the most prominent ones is Protee (Isaach De Bankolé), a “houseboy” with whom France has stricken up a friendship with. At the same time, there is sexual tension between he and Aimee, which will lead to further tension as she tries to become closer to the native Africans.
One thing that Denis does exceptionally well in this is capture the sense of memories comin back to a person, and the hazy was filmmakers often portray that. The cinematography by Robert Alazraki is beautiful and lovely and gets to the beauty of Africa, with the music by Abdullah Ibrahim providing subtle emotional leverage where needed. The vision of the film, and the storytelling, is exquisite, but I personally did not find myself drawn in by the performances here. The story is compelling, and how the racial dynamics play out are interesting, but the performances did not engage me in the way both story and theme requires. If I rewatch it in the future, after becoming more familiar with her work, I might look at it otherwise. For now, it left me at a distance, one that will- hopefully- be shortened in the future.
