Chocolat Directed by Lasse Hallsstrom.

Chocolat Directed by Lasse Hallsstrom. Starring Johnny Depp. 2000. Why does Vianne encounter such resistance to the opening of her chocolate shop? The small French provincial village where Vianne and her daughter open their shop is extremely pleasure-denying. Denying pleasure and religion are seen as synonymous, and this is reinforced in the sermons of Father Henri and the mayor of the town Comte de Reynaud.

What is the significance of Lent in this small French village? Lent, which occurs during the time when Vianne opens her shop, is a time to deny the pleasures of the body and of consumption even more so than usual. What special properties or power does Vianne's chocolate have? Vianne's chocolate causes people to feel passion and love, and to heal and forgive their old wounds.

How does Vianne's chocolate reflect her heritage? Vianne does not come from the same conventional, Christian French background as the dwellers of the town, and thus her more Latinate celebration of pleasure and her chocolate creations are in some sense fused. She is of foreign heritage, unlike the residents of the town who have never moved away for most of their lives. They are stagnant while Vianne is mobile and pliable, like chocolate and like the body itself. 5.

What role does food (chocolate) play in bringing people together in this film? Coming into the chocolate shop causes people to encounter people who they have loved from afar, and chocolate becomes a vehicle and expression of affection of lovers for their beloved. Also, food is a vehicle of pleasure in general, a celebration of life, the body, and sensuality, which have all been denied by the people of the film for too long.

Even simply drinking hot chocolate helps Vianne's landlady to thaw as a human being and eventually to her estranged daughter. 6. How does Vianne's chocolate shop affect the lives of various residents of the village? One old man finally proposes to a woman he has adored from afar, another woman becomes reconciled with a long-lost daughter. People change, fall in love, and quarrels are healed, and eventually the entire village comes to embrace the spirit of the chocolate shop and what chocolate symbolizes in general. 7.

Describe three dramatic events that take place in the movie involving chocolate. The puritanical Reynaud unintentionally incites an unbalanced man.