Director Lasse Hallstrom’s film Chocolat is filled with metaphor. The largest metaphor that Hallstrom gives is chocolate. It is a metaphor for freedom and happiness. The people in the town that give in to their primeval desire to indulge in chocolate are happy and these people are not held down by the strict codes of society. There is a drawback though. The town is controlled by a man that lives a strict pious life. He publically shuns the people that eat chocolate and denounces the chocolatier during Sunday Chapel. The characters in the movie constantly have changing opinions of chocolate, but while characters like chocolate they are consistently happier and live life in an opener way.
At the start of the film, Vianne and Anouk walk into a seemingly abandoned, small French town. The town is small, but it is in no way deserted. All of the townsfolk are attending mass at the local church. The patisserie that they rent is owned by one of the few people in the town that does not attend church. Armande and Vianne meeting is the key element involved in the metamorphosis of the town. The entire town, sparing Armande and Vianne, live pious lifestyles with strict moral and ethical standards. They separate paths while Vianne secretly renovates the patisserie into a chocolatier. Her store immediately causes a ruckus in the town. People do not know how to respond to a chocolatier opening during the Lenten season. Most people shun the shop, but overtime the pious attitude of the village erodes. People begin to forget their Lenten vows and eat chocolate. This group of people forgets the strict rules of society and grows happier. Chocolate is not happiness to these villagers, but it is an escape from the limits that the church places on them.
As the film progresses, a woman named Josephine runs away from her abusive husband Paul. She does not know where to go, but knows that Vianne is welcome and open to everyone. Vianne gives Josephine a new job and life that revolves around chocolate. This resurrection is not freedom from the church, but it is freedom from her abusive husband. Vianne and Josephine continue to live in and manage the shop together. After some amount of time progresses, Josephine’s old husband comes to her and tells her that he is a changed man. She refuses to leave with him. Chocolate has brought a new happiness to Josephine. It gave her a rebirth. It fixed her stuttering behavior. It destroyed her kleptomaniac personality.
Vianne helps another character regain happiness through chocolate also. Armande is initially an angry old woman that is upset with her life. She is not allowed to see her grandson and does not speak to her daughter. Armande visits the shop to collect rent from Vianne and has a cup of hot chocolate. She immediately starts to change. She is still unhappy with her life, but Vianne’s chocolate starts to bring her happiness. When Vianne learns of Armande’s problem with her grandson and daughter, Vianne immediately attempts to fix it. She brings Luc, Armande’s grandson, to the chocolatier to supposedly draw her portrait, but she actually set Armande and Luc up to connect. They quickly develop a relationship and spend time together at the chocolatier in secret. Caroline, Luc’s mother, eventually learns about these meetings and brings them to a halt. During Caroline’s experience at the chocolatier, Vianne learns of Armande’s diabetes along with other problems. Armande continues to go to the chocolatier because it is one of the few things that make her happy. She dies the night of her final birthday from diabetes. Chocolate may have been the reason that she died, but it also brought her a joy that she had never experienced.
Vianne helps a river rat named Roux also. He is accustomed to being shunned in towns and villages because he is a river rat, but Vianne accepts him as well all the people that came with him. She actually falls in love with him. At Armande’s birthday, Vianne merged the part of the town that indulged in chocolate and Roux’s people. She brings them together to celebrate and to indulge in chocolate. The two groups of people see that there are not that many differences between one and another. Chocolate brought peace to these people.
Through the film, chocolate is looked at as a terrible thing by many people of stature, but the people that fed their indulgence saw that it is not a terrible thing, but a great thing. Chocolate did not hurt the town, but it brought happiness and new ways of life to people.
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