Chocolat

In the film, Chocolat, there a belief that chocolate holds magical abilities on people’s mind and body. Depending on a person’s current situation and personality depends on how the chocolate will affect them. In the town, they believe that chocolate is an evil thing because they are taught that by the Catholic Church and by the mayor. The magical realism in this film lies in the fact that this single shop turns the town upside-down. It changes the lives of Vianne and Anouk Rocher along with Comte de Reynaud.

For Vianne and Anouk it changes their lives from being a very unsettled life roaming from town to town. They settle in this town and their shop not only helps them gain friends but with new friends comes new enemies. They, for a good portion of the film, had many enemies due to Comte. They become more capable for dealing with these people and show to them that they aren’t as evil as they are made out to be. The chocolate that they make, ends up making other people feel better.

In the case of Comte, he was blinded by some rule that he may have been taught as a child. This rule had stuck with him all his life and transferred to his adult life. This could have been caused by a misinterpretation of a Bible scripture. The main issue is that Comte was misdirected in his beliefs. For some unknown reason he “approves” the sermons taught at the church, which he writes himself to be spoken by the priest. This results in him getting his own point across to the inhabitants. The allowance of this could be considered corrupt. As more people decide to go to the chocolaterie, the more upset he gets with the shop. He finally ends up snapping and eating a fair amount of chocolate. This caused him to change his opinion of the chocolate shop. He realizes in the end that he was misguided. No one makes a big deal of this and just lets it slide on by. Which I think is a small bit of magical realism, because a normal community would make a huge deal about a political official making a large change in opinion. In the film, it isn’t treated like a big problem.

This cinematic adventure showed magical realism, adaptation, and opening of the mind. The magical realism was shown through the lack of a reaction by the citizens to Comte’s change in behavior toward chocolate. The adaptation was shown through Vianne and Anouk getting use to being treated badly