Summary
A piano student, Jeanne Pollet, learns that she was very nearly switched at birth with
the son of a famous concert pianist, André Polonski. Curious, she visits
the Polonki household and is surprised at how warmly she is received - at least by Polonksi
and his wife, Mika, who owns a chocolate factory. Polonksi’s son Guillaume is less
than enthusiastic when his father offers to coach Jeanne on her piano playing.
Jeanne becomes suspicious when Mika deliberately knocks over a flask containing hot chocolate
destined for Guillaume. She asks her boyfriend, who works in a forensic lab, to
analyse some of the chocolate which was spilled on her clothes. It turns out that
the chocolate contains traces of a powerful sleeping drug. Jeanne subsequently learns
that Polanki’s previous wife died in a car accident, having fallen asleep at the wheel
of her car...
Review
After the comparative disappointment of his previous two films, Claude Chabrol more than
redeems himself with this chilling, multi-layered suspense thriller. Crafted with
the sophistication, analytical precision and sheer style of Hitchock's better works, Merci
pour le chocolat takes us back to the taut, fragile and slightly sinister world of
the secluded Bourgeois family seen in La
Cérémonie (1995). These two films have a great deal in common,
and with Chabrol's 2003 film La
Fleur du mal, they form a curiously cohesive trilogy, linked
by a common theme.
Chabrol would appear to have something of a morbid obsession with the Bourgeois milieu.
Time and again in his films, the veneer of middleclass respectability is pared back to
reveal something nasty, a beautiful but deadly flower growing in a well-kept garden.
The poisonous plant which features in Merci pour le chocolat is a particularly
nasty piece of work - perhaps the most venomous in any of Chabrol's films. Mika
Muller - played by Isabelle Huppert - is as good as she is evil; her apparent kindness
rendering her malice all the more sickening and inexplicable.
What makes the Mika Muller character appear so terrible is that the extent of her depravity
is only revealed right at the end of the film. Although she is clearly a manipulative
individual, her behaviour throughout most of the film appears to be motivated by good
intent. It comes as a shock to find that she is the complete opposite. Like
the chocolate she manufactures, she brings only an illusion of goodness. Beyond
the illusion, there is something truly horrific: a vicious child who has never managed
to grow up, and who is incapable of judging her thoughts or her actions. With no
moral principles, she is capable of anything.
One thing which the film doesn't really make clear is Mika's motivation
for wanting to kill a second time. Her behaviour appears either completely
malicious or totally arbitrary. A possible explanation is offered in La Fleur
du mal, where the connection with La Cérémonie also becomes apparent.
Watching Merci pour le chocolat a second time, after having
seen the complete trilogy, one's view of Mika seems to have changed considerably.
In addition to being one of Chabrol's most disturbing films, Merci pour le chocolat
is also one of his most technically accomplished. Throughout, the film reflects
Chabrol’s vast experience as a film maker, which now extends to over 50 films in a career
stretching back forty years. The suspense thriller is a genre he clearly feels comfortable
with and shows complete mastery of. In an interview, he stated that he was applying
techniques which Hitchcock used even without realising it. The proof is that this
film is one of his most atmospheric and suspense-laden, although it appears superficially
much simpler than many of his earlier thrillers.
One device which Chabrol uses to great effect here is music to emphasise and, more often,
to precede dramatic developments. Music plays a particular importance in this film,
perhaps more so than in any previous Chabrol thriller. The two of the main characters
(Polanski and Jeanne) are united by their love of music, and this forms an intangible
but very real barrier against the other two characters (Guillaume and Mika). It
is the music - particularly the strident funeral compositions - which largely creates
the mood of the film, suggesting tensions and dangerously repressed emotions.
No one but Isabelle Huppert could have played the deliciously complex Mika. Despite
Chabrol’s statements to the contrary, he very probably did have this actress in mind for
the part from the outset, because she is just so perfectly qualified to take it on.
The character fits neatly into the growing repertoire of repressed, disconnected middle-aged
females which Huppert exceeds in, and the actress certainly gives one of her best performances.
Even in the less successful Madame Bovary and Rien ne va plus Huppert is
stunning, and it is an immense pleasure to see her perform so well in a film which is
worthy of her talent, such as Merci pour le chocolat.
Credit must also go to Jacques Dutronc, who plays Mika’s pianist husband. Although
Dutronc has enjoyed greater success as a singer than an actor, his performance in this
film is one to be savoured. You really do feel that he has been a concert pianist
all his life. Also, his dark, introspective personality suits the tone of
the film perfectly.
In summary, Merci pour le chocolat is classic Chabrol. Directed with the
flair of a true master of the thriller genre, it paints a terrifying portrait of festering
perversion within a seemingly benign environment. That evil should be introduced
to us with a veil of smiling goodness makes it a particularly chilling examination of
the psychology of a killer. It's enough to put you off your chocolate for life...
© James Travers 2003
For more on Claude Chabrol see:
The life of Claude Chabrol
Le Beau Serge
Les Cousins
Le Boucher
Que la bête meure
La Cérémonie
Buy films by Claude Chabrol
Buy films starring Isabelle Huppert
More about the French New Wave
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