CHOCOLAT

Year: 2000
USA: Miramax Films
UK: Buena Vista International
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugh O'Conor, Victoire Thivisol, Peter Stormare, Aurelien Parent-Koening, Dominique MacAvoy, Michele Gleizer, Leslie Caron, Elisabeth Commelin, Guillaume Tardieu, John Wood
Director: Lasse Hallström
Country: USA
USA: 118 mins
UK: 121 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for a scene of sensuality and some violence
UK Certificate: 12 contains mild bad language and violence, and one sex scene
USA Release Date: 5 January 2001
USA Release Date: 22 December 2000 (Limited Release)
USA Release Date: 15 December 2000 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 2 March 2001

Synopsis

When Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche), a mysterious stranger, and her six-year old daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) arrive in a tranquil French town in the winter of 1959, nobody could have imagined the impact that she and her spirited daughter would have on this community stubbornly rooted in tradition. Within days, Vianne opens a very unusual chocolate shop, filled with mouth-watering confections, across the square from the church. Her ability to perceive her customers' private desires and satisfy them with just the right confection, coaxes the villagers to abandon themselves to temptation. The resident nobleman and self-appointed leader of the town are shocked that Vianne is tempting the local townspeople with her delicacies. Fearing it will ruin his town, he pits himself against Vianne and tries to forbid anyone from entering her shop, hoping to run her out of town forever.

However when another outsider arrives, the handsome Roux (Johnny Depp), and joins forces with Vianne to liberate the town, a dramatic confrontation arises between those who prefer the ways of the past and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure.

Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom (MY LIFE AS A DOG, CIDER HOUSE RULES) this romantic fable is produced by David Brown, Kit Golden and Leslie Holleran with Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Alan C Blomquist and Meryl Poster as executive producers and Mark Cooper as co-producer. The film is based on Joanne Harris' novel, and is adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs.