Analysis Of The Film Chocolat

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In an interview in with Judy Stone in 1989, Claire Denis, the director of Chocolat (1988), explained that she titled the film “Chocolat” because in the 1950s the term had a slang meaning. At the time, it was used to express being “had or cheated”. This, when paired using word association, created the expression of “To be black is to be cheated.” In Fritz Fanon’s celebrated 1952 essay piece, “The Fact of Blackness”, he expresses, “As long as the black man is among his own, he will have no occasion, except in minor internal conflicts, to experience his being through others.” Fanon goes on to assert that non-White people have to confront the contrived histories about their cultures and origins placed upon them from colonialist society. In terms …show more content…

This creates a complication in ontological evenness wherein people of color are unfree and objectified. They are viewed in a certain sense by “whites” as “other”. In the shower scene, Protée is enjoying an every-person luxury: bathing and cleanliness, an unbiased activity, but he breaks down in anguish upon recognizing he is seen. He has drawn a line connecting the two …show more content…

The scene in which Prosper comes to the house, he is greeted and reacted to with such disrespect even though he is considered to be a medical professional. This shows us that even prior to making a mistake or doing something that would denounce him from his honorable profession, he is disgraced just for being black. He is not even offered the opportunity to mess up; instead he is seen and treated as if he already has. As Fanon writes, “And so it is not I who make a meaning for myself, but it is the meaning that was already there, pre-existing, waiting for me.” Aimee later gets Protée removed from working within the house as she found herself experiencing sexual tension with Protée. It contradicts the white gaze as described and written about by Manthia Diawara in “Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance”. In both Protée and Aimee’s shower scenes we see how the white gaze when paired with the desire and sexual tension hurts Protée. Realizing Aimee has seen him also means Aimee placed her gaze on Protée; she had chosen to see him at that moment, in his vulnerable

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