Chocolat
Claire Denis immediately revealed her command of cinematic form with her debut feature, drawn from her own experience of growing up in French colonial Africa. After many years of living in France, a white woman (Mireille Perrier) returns to the town in Cameroon where she spent her childhood. There, she reflects on her past, including her relationship with Protée (Isaach de Bankolé), a Black servant with whom she formed a friendship while not fully grasping the divides that governed their worlds. Already displaying many of Denis’s artistic signatures—including an immersive sense of place; an elliptical approach to storytelling; and an interest in complex dynamics of race, sex, and power—Chocolat is an evocatively impressionistic yet piercingly precise examination of the psychology of colonialism.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Claire Denis and director of photography Robert Alazraki, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interview with Denis
- Interview with actor Isaac de Bankolé from 2011
- Newsreel footage from the film’s Cannes premiere
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Jennifer Wilson
New cover by Michael Boland
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Claire Denis and director of photography Robert Alazraki, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interview with Denis
- Interview with actor Isaac de Bankolé from 2011
- Newsreel footage from the film’s Cannes premiere
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Jennifer Wilson
New cover by Michael Boland
Cast
- Isaach De Bankolé
- Protée
- Giulia Boschi
- Aimée Dalens
- François Cluzet
- Marc Dalens
- Mireille Perrier
- France Dalens, adult
- Cécile Ducasse
- France Dalens, child
- Jean-Claude Adelin
- Luc
- Jacques Denis
- Joseph Delpich
- Kenneth Cranham
- Boothby
- Didier Flamand
- Captain Védrine
- Jean-Quentin Châtelain
- Courbassol
- Laurent Arnal
- Machinard
Credits
- Director
- Claire Denis
- Screenplay by
- Claire Denis
- Screenplay by
- Jean-Pol Fargeau
- Director of photography
- Robert Alazraki
- Production design
- Thierry Flamand
- Costumes
- Christian Gasc
- Sound
- Jean-Louis Ughetto
- Sound
- Dominique Hennequin
- Editor
- Claudine Merlin
- Music
- Abdullah Ibrahim
Trailer for Chocolat
