his “real” home. In the end, the African-American William J. "Mungo" Park ¹ gives the advice to France to leave the country as long as she is still able to do so. He tells her the story of his denial in this putative home country. He does not know her history but either way he is probably right when claiming that his right to be there is more persuasive than hers ² .

Although obviously coming from different racial backgrounds, both characters in this scene are connected through the common experience of rejection in Cameroon. Within the film the rejection is therefore clearly qualified as a national matter rather than a racial or colonial. This also gives insight to the changed modalities in the former colony. In preindependence Cameroon the colonial oppressors were certainly rejected - overtly and covertly. No African-American would have chosen to come settle in the country of his ancestors under colonial rule. Since Cameroon is now independent and understands itself as nation such an attempt makes sense for the black “intruder” but apparently not for the natives. The film tries not to explain this specific rejection of Park as Denis - as a white French woman - is not willing to draw from a point of view she can not possess - that of an African.

The use of music in the film is very rare and underscores the loneliness of the white oppressors in this place they do not belong. Two French songs are sung throughout the flashback scene without any instrumentation and once more pointing out the separation of the colonialists and the colonized that will be examined a bit later ³ . Recorded background music can be heard only during the transition to and from the flashback to the present as to show the regained joy in life of the now independent people of Cameroon. In Marc’s song “we hear him sing […] an old French song whose words ironically state a clear preference for love over empire.” ⁴ Since he is almost always away from home to carry out his colonial duties one could project this song to his love of the country he is in. This assumption is reinforced by his rather ill tempered reaction to the question of one of his black listeners about the sense of “Ma Mie” - which resembles the name of his wife Aimée.

¹ It is said in the narrative that he got this nickname from the natives. So he is obviously marked as an outsider

by the native population. Although one probably can't divide Park from Cameroonians, his nickname tells

everybody about his not being part of the nation. The nickname refers to the Scottish adventurer and explorer

Mungo Park who was travelling Africa in the 18th century.

² His ancestors were forced to leave their home country by oppressors; France’s parents were the

representatives of an oppressive power.

³ One song is sung by Marc; the other by the planter Delpich.

⁴ Durham, Carolyn. More Than Meets the Eye, in: “Moving Pictures, Migrating Identities”, Jackson: UP of

Mississippi, 2003, p.133.

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The character of Marc is truly in love with “his” colony and he is shown how he respectfully treats the people. But, nonetheless, he is not able to really get in touch with the natives ⁵ . In his position as a French official he has to mediate colonial interests and interests of his subordinates. This ends for him - outstandingly the character most interested in an understanding of the colonized - in fatal misunderstanding and rejection. An old man tells him about the problems with the lions and he offers help through military. This offer is immediately rejected because it breaks with the tradition of the natives and therefore can’t be done. Marc is depicted as a dreamer and idealist regarding a cultural understanding but in the end it is him who speaks out the words about the coming ending of colonial rule: “One of these days, we’ll be driven out of here.” 6

The camera work in Chocolat is inconspicuous, observing and resembles a certain third cinema approach; it “does not seek or explore; it simply visits, recording what it encounters as it passes by.” ⁷ I would place this fact in the context of a recognizable approach of the filmmaker to break with conventions of image construction. As Susan Hayward argues, Chocolat inverts the concept of the three looks that Laura Mulvey introduced. “First, the filmmaker is female - a first eye is, therefore, feminine. Second, the film is in flashback and we are told it is the little girl’s look. Thus it is the older France’s mind’s eye, her memory and therefore her look - a look that is also outside the film looking in on her past. A second female eye as camera is, then, in place. Third, the look within the film is the little girl’s look, we see what she sees - so a third look is female.” ⁸ While Hayward attests Denis a successful deconstruction of mainstream narrative cinema, I think Denis stays in the established binary female/male (active/passive) model of the construction of looks. However, Denis found a spot within the system that allowed her to desexualize and objectify the camera - by the narration through a (female) child. Although the young France takes over some of her mother’s behaviour ⁹ (and therefore feminizes the look respectively the object of the look) she is still an innocent, pre-pubescent child and stays outside of the sexual part of the plot. The latter is seen through the eyes of Protée, besides France the central figure in the film.

⁵ He keeps on drawing landscapes in his notebook and cares for the people’s hardships.

⁶ Quoted after: Durham, p.135

⁷ Durham, p.129

⁸ Hayward, Susan. Reading Masculinities in Claire Denis’s ‘Chocolat’, in: “Imperialism and Gender:

Constructions of Masculinity”, Australia: Dangaroo Press, 1996, p.116.

⁹ E.g. by commanding Protée around at the school

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Protée

In the same way that France, the child and woman, is a literal reference to the country its name she bears, the black servant Protée serves as representative for the colonized ‘other’- Protée signifies his people and by watching him the spectator can see what colonialism "did". Protée is the house servant of the Dalens' and in this position the "highest ranking" black man around. This close proximity to the white colonialists separates him from his own people. This is shown by a separated and sort of outkast Protée whenever you see the servant group sitting around or eating and talking. The most obvious scene pointing this out is when Luc, the white French intruder, simply takes a place in the black community - a place that should be Protée's. From the white position of power, Luc is able to live and dominate in both societies, black and white (native and colonialist), while Protée remains powerless. This loss of power and manliness is shown through the permanent feminization of Protée within the narrative. First, because he is seen through the eyes of young France he becomes desexualized, and therefore objectified ¹⁰ . Protée serves the two females and in his absence is referred to as 'the boy'. This feminization of the racial 'other' is made more than obvious in the scene when he mops the veranda while the woman and the girl are watching him. He is part of the domestic sphere - the classical, protestant habitat of the female in a patriarchal society. To preserve his male and racial dignity, Protée acts behind a mask when he serves the family. We as spectators get a little insight to his feelings (when he laughs about the grotesque scene where the cook leaves in anger; when he cries after they have seen him naked in the shower; when he throws Luc out of the house) but within the power system of the narrative the communication between Protée and the white colonialists happens only through language and looks. The language of Protée is limited mostly to affirmation. The looks, as Dana Strand points out, structure the narrative around Protée ¹¹ . Especially Aimée and Protée exchange various looks that point to the forbidden sexual desire that stands between them.

I want to point out three scenes where this can be recognized in the narrative. First, when Aimée calls Protée to protect her and France from the hyena. This is the first passive approach of Aimée to seduce Protée. She invites him to stay in her bedroom ¹² . He is therefore allowed to be in her private sphere but has no active, male power to respond to the

¹⁰ Hayward, p.115

¹¹ Strand, Dana. ‘Dark Continents’ Collide: Race and Gender in Claire Denis’s ‘Chocolat’, in: French Cultural

Studies: Criticism at the Crossroads, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000, p.222.

¹² Although France is there, she asks Protée to stay with her.

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