7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena OlinRomance | 100% |
Period | 17% |
Drama | 7% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The sweet seductive allure of chocolate has an almost magical ability to whisk people away into fantasy lands of paradisiacal perfection. Don’t believe me? Look at any kid having their first bite of a chocolate bar or hot fudge sundae. That willing surrender to the pure, lascivious power of food is central to the incredibly charming Lasse Hallström film Chocolat, but of course the central idea the film espouses is something a good deal more general. Chocolate may be the means to spiritual liberation in Chocolat, but it’s the end, the liberation itself, that makes up this film’s piquant point of view. Juliette Binoche plays free spirited single mother Vianne Rocher, who more or less wanders into an incredibly idyllic French village in the late 1950’s and has the audacity to set up a chocolate shop directly in the midst of the great annual “festival” of self-deprivation, namely Lent. That single-minded decision, perhaps or perhaps not so innocent, sets Vianne immediately at odds with an incredibly repressed set of villagers who exist in a world of superstition, recrimination and, lest it not be obvious, a complete and utter lack of anything overly tasty, literally or figuratively. Chocolat is a morality tale, to be sure, and while it may not be overly subtle, it is easily one of the most evocative, charming and effortlessly ebullient films of the past decade or so, a film that has no grand pretensions but which manages to touch some significant truths about the human condition and perhaps not so coincidentally the attractions of the cocoa plant.
Chocolat has always had a pretty soft looking image, and this new Blu-ray's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 doesn't really do much to alleviate that aspect. Everything is just slightly fuzzy almost all of the time, but then, rather strangely, a really sharp scene or two will crop up, even more oddly in that it tends to be at the chocolate shop rather than one of the outdoor, more brightly lit, moments. Colors here are also just slightly drab and even desaturated at times, though they are a good deal more robust than in the previous DVD release of the film. Crush is fairly evident in a lot of the darker scenes and digital noise shows up in a few of these dimly lit scenes as well. This is a bit of a disappointment, but truth be told, my hunch is virtually all of these anomalies are present in the source elements and not due to an overly shoddy transfer.
Chocolat's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track may not be bombastic, but it's an elegantly rendered track that features wonderful music by Rachel Portman, clear and precise dialogue and a number of very well positioned sound effects. That whimsical north wind which Vianne's daughter ruminates about throughtout the film filters through the surround channels with appealing directionality, and Portman's evocative score also is very well distributed around the soundfield. The entire track in fact has a very appealing spaciousness, somewhat ironic considering the claustrophobic confines of the small French village where Vianne and her child find themselves. The balance between dialogue, effects and score is artfully handled, fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is also very good throughout the film.
It's rather interesting that Lionsgate is releasing new Blu-rays of Chocolat and Amélie on the same day, for despite their apparent differences, the two share certain similarities. Both are cast in a fable like way, and both feature heroines who go around fixing things right and left. But while Amélie exults in its magical fantasy world, Chocolat tries to tread a somewhat more realistic path, to fitful results. Some of this film is too predictable for its own good, but ultimately the film overcomes its slight issues to deliver a really beautifully realized and surprisingly emotional look at changing mores and interpersonal relationships. The cast here is what saves the material, and it's a stellar cast indeed. The production design is also incredibly evocative, and while some aspects of the film may strike some as silly, overall Chocolat is as tasty as its titular candy. This Blu-ray is an improvement on the DVD, but it still offers a pretty soft image which may bother some videophiles. Nonetheless, this release is Recommended.
2014
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Warner Archive Collection
1949
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70th Anniversary
1953
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1939