# Chocolat (2000 film)
**Chocolat** is a 2000 comedy-drama romance film directed by [Lasse Hallström](https://www.edgepedia.org/lasse-hallstrom), adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's 1999 novel of the same name, in which a traveling chocolate maker opens a shop in a tradition-bound French village at the start of Lent.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) It stars [Juliette Binoche](https://www.edgepedia.org/juliette-binoche), Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, and [Johnny Depp](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnny-depp), was produced by Miramax Films, and received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) • [2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / screenwriter | Lasse Hallström; screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on the novel *Chocolat* by Joanne Harris (New York, 1999)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) |
| Principal cast | Juliette Binoche (Vianne), Judi Dench (Armande Voizin), Alfred Molina (Comte de Reynaud), Lena Olin (Josephine Muscat), Johnny Depp (Roux)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) |
| Release | Los Angeles and New York openings 15 December 2000; United States wide release January 5, 2001[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat) |
| Academy Awards | Five nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay[2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/) |
| SAG Award | Judi Dench won the 2001 Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role[2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/) |
| Budget and gross | $25,000,000 budget; $152,700,626 worldwide gross[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/) |
| Critical scores | Rotten Tomatoes 63% Tomatometer and 83% audience score; Metacritic 64/100; IMDb 7.2/10[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/chocolat/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Vianne Rocher (Binoche) and her six-year-old daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) arrive in the fictional French village of [Lansquenet](https://www.edgepedia.org/lansquenet) in the winter of 1959 and open a chocolate shop across the square from the church, just as Lent begins.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat) • [6](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/chocolat.shtml) Vianne has a gift for perceiving each customer's hidden desires and matching a confection to them, and the straitlaced villagers begin to yield to temptation.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat) • [2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/)
The village is overseen by the Comte de Reynaud (Molina), who opposes the shop and forbids villagers to patronize it.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D27052.html) Vianne's chocolate improves the lives of her grumpy landlord Armande (Dench) and the troubled Josephine (Olin), whose husband Serge ([Peter Stormare](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-stormare)) is violent.[8](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/chocolat) When a band of river travelers docks their houseboats at Lansquenet, the mayor campaigns against them as moral outcasts; Vianne and Anouk welcome them, and Vianne befriends their leader Roux (Depp). Serge, taking the mayor's condemnation too literally, sets fire to the boats after a celebration.[9](https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/07/CHOCOLAT.pdf) As Easter approaches, the Comte breaks into the shop to destroy the chocolates and instead wallows in them, then admits his narrow outlook; the young priest preaches on measuring goodness by what we embrace and who we include, and the village becomes more tolerant.[9](https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/07/CHOCOLAT.pdf)
## Production and adaptation
The film was shot in the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy, France, which served as the village, shop, church, and mayor's home, with additional filming on the Rue de l'ancienne Poste in Beynac-et-Cazenac on the Dordogne.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/) • [10](https://cdn6.f-cdn.com/files/download/129851812/MOVIE%20ANALYSIS%20-%20CHOCOLAT%202000.pdf) The crew built the village square set with painstaking care; Harris, visiting the set, described tables of chocolate figures of rabbits, lambs, fish, and hens, and a pan of melted chocolate whose scent filled the whole place.[11](https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/chocolat/chocolatfilmarticle.pdf)
Harris, a British novelist of half French and half English parentage, drew the story from her own family history: she lived in a confectioner's shop and was the great-granddaughter of a Frenchwoman known locally as a witch and healer.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D27052.html) She has said she got the idea when her husband remarked that football was chocolate for men; with many football-themed books around, she decided to write a book about chocolate for women.[12](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0408/607311-joanne-harris-on-chocolat-and-football/) She was closely involved in the adaptation, reading every line of the script with Juliette Binoche before filming began on May 2.[11](https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/chocolat/chocolatfilmarticle.pdf) Of the finished film she wrote that it had been "sweetened to some extent, and simplified to meet the needs of a cinema audience," but that the adaptation was fair and remained close in spirit, if not always in detail, to the book.[13](https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/books/chocolat/)
Binoche and [Lena Olin](https://www.edgepedia.org/lena-olin) had previously appeared together in [Philip Kaufman](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-kaufman)'s *The Unbearable Lightness of Being*.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D27052.html) The child actress Victoire Thivisol, cast as Anouk, had at age four become the youngest performer to win the Volpi Cup for acting at the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), for Jacques Doillon's *Ponette*.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D27052.html)
## Reception and box office
The film earned a generally favorable but divided critical response. Its Metacritic metascore of 64 rests on 31 reviews, ranging from [Shawn Levy](https://www.edgepedia.org/shawn-levy)'s 91 in *The Portland Oregonian*, praising the acting, decor, photography, and music, to Desson Thomson's 40 in *The Washington Post*, which offered only "pleasant" and "mildly disarming" as praise.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/chocolat/) Rotten Tomatoes' critics consensus calls it "a charmingly light-hearted fable with a lovely performance by Binoche," with 63% of 163 critics positive against an 83% audience score.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat) Some religious commentators read the film as a metaphor for the struggle between a cold, unimaginative Christianity and a warm, creative neopaganism, while noting it is not meant as realistic drama.[9](https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/07/CHOCOLAT.pdf)
Against a $25,000,000 budget, the film grossed $71,509,363 in the United States and Canada and $152,700,626 worldwide.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/) In France it sold 618,241 admissions.[14](https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=2457)
## Awards
At the 2001 Academy Awards the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Binoche), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Dench), Best Music (Original Score, by Rachel Portman), and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.[2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/) • [15](https://www.showtimes.com/movies/chocolat-2000-1710/) It received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Film in the Comedy/Musical category, and Dench won the [Screen Actors Guild](https://www.edgepedia.org/screen-actors-guild) award for supporting actress.[2](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/)
## Versions and related titles
Reported runtimes differ by source: the [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute) catalog lists 116 minutes, while IMDb and Common Sense Media list 121 minutes, and one archive lists 118 minutes for the United States and 121 for the United Kingdom.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/) • [6](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/chocolat.shtml) The film is rated PG-13 in the United States for a scene of sensuality and some violence.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT)
The title is shared with two unrelated films: [Claire Denis](https://www.edgepedia.org/claire-denis)'s 1988 debut *Chocolat*, set in colonial Cameroon, and Claude Chabrol's 2000 thriller *Merci pour le chocolat* (*Nightcap*), adapted from Charlotte Armstrong's *The Chocolate Cobweb*.[16](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/chocolat/) • [17](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/54827/)
## References
1. [Chocolat (2000), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61097-CHOCOLAT)
2. [Chocolat, Official Site, Miramax](https://www.miramax.com/movie/chocolat/)
3. [Chocolat, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chocolat)
4. [Chocolat (2000), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241303/)
5. [Chocolat Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/chocolat/)
6. [Chocolat, Movie Info Archive, phase9.tv](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/chocolat.shtml)
7. [Le Chocolat, Film 2000, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D27052.html)
8. [Chocolat, Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/chocolat)
9. [On Ash Wednesday: Chocolat, Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales](https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/07/CHOCOLAT.pdf)
10. [Background of the Movie: Chocolat 2000](https://cdn6.f-cdn.com/files/download/129851812/MOVIE%20ANALYSIS%20-%20CHOCOLAT%202000.pdf)
11. [Joanne Harris, Daily Telegraph article on the film set, January 2001](https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/chocolat/chocolatfilmarticle.pdf)
12. [Joanne Harris on 'Chocolat' and Football, RTÉ Archives](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0408/607311-joanne-harris-on-chocolat-and-football/)
13. [Chocolat, Joanne Harris official site](https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/books/chocolat/)
14. [Chocolat (2000), JP Box-Office](https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=2457)
15. [Chocolat (2000), Showtimes synopsis](https://www.showtimes.com/movies/chocolat-2000-1710/)
16. [Chocolat (1988, Claire Denis), Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/chocolat/)
17. [Nightcap (Merci pour le chocolat), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/54827/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2000 to 2002 › Comedies of 2000*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license