The 2000 film «Chocolat» by Swedish director Lasse Hallström almost feels like magical realism, mostly thanks to images rather than to the script. Because the visuals are almost like from a fairy tale.
Look, it begins with two red caped figures walking into a cold-blue town. A single mother and her daughter are drawn by the wind (she is riding on a wind like Mary Poppins!). And she starts to change the lives of the people around her. And that is showing in the color of their costumes. It`s very subtle, because the movie has its muted palette and the costumes never leave the palette range to start with. But still.
The main character Vianne arrives into the town and first she changes the place she rents transforming the environment with her colors. She paints the walls turquoise (and burgundi).
Vianne has basically three colors: red (with variants into coral red-orange-pink), turquoise (which is warm blue-green) and burgundi. And a few times she wears dark blue for a change.
Costume designer said in the bonus features that burgundi is associated with chocolate. I didn`t know that. I thought it is rather dark blue.
Anyway, she paints her chocolaterie turquoise and starts giving people chocolate.
She attracts lonely some hearts and women neglected or abused by their husbands. And she starts spreading her kindness and warmth onto people drawn to her.
And let`s understand that turquoise is not just one color, but a group of shades. So, it might have variants and the are many shades of turquoise in this film. Here are shades of turquoise.
There is a few characters who wear different colors in the beginning but as they start communicating with Vianne and become affected by her positive influence they start more and more dress into her colors. Let`s look.
There is Yvette, middle aged neglected wife, and her neglectful husband Alphonse.
Armande Voizin, the owner of the estate, she rents the place out to Vianne.
Armande has some kind of conflict with her daughter Caroline who doesn`t let her to see her grandson Luc. Caroline lost her husband and so she is overprotective of Luc.
There is also Josephine who is badly abused by her husband, and a couple of other lonely hearts.
That`s how they enter the story:
Some of their garments are in muted palette that is somehow close to Vianne`s turquoise, but not quite.
Josephine is a kleptomaniac which is probably a psychological compensation for her abuse.
After being beaten by her husband Josephine seeks refuge in Viannes chocolaterie. She starts dressing in Viannes clothes: coral red and turquoise.
Vianne hires Luc to draw some pictures and arranges him to meet his granny without his mother knowing.
The boy`s garment is darker, but he practically dissolves into the walls of the chocolaterie in it.
When their conflicts are resolved, all the characters have something turquoise-ish on them. Maybe, not totally the same color, but definitely in the same range.
At the very end of the film they all refuse to let Vianne leave the town with the wind that usually signifies her moving on — by cooking chocolate in her shop.
And the palette of that company clearly states who they are with — by staying close to Viannne`s turquoise.
Like I said it might look not quite the same and it`s subtle but if you compare them before and after, you will clearly see the difference. And the whole scene stays in the muted palette, but feels like a painting where the general color is achieved not by simply applying it everywhere but by adding different shades into the painting. They fit together so to speak.
A couple of more lovely touches of visual narrative here: the sculpture of the town founding father and the overall color palette in the beginning and the end of the film:
Again, subtle color change: cold into warm (and a smile).
Same with the overview of the town: the opening and the closing frames of the film.
PS: BTW, at the end of the story Josephine, spared from her barbaric husband, found her own personality color in pink.
