Monsieur Chocolat * * * *

Omar Sy as Chocolat, France's most
popular performer (then and now) gets a kicking

    I’m not really into clowns (or cloons as the French would say).  I’m not scared of them either.  It’s just that I’ve never found them particularly funny. Whatever they’re doing they seem to be doing more for themselves than for me. But I had to give respect to the actors who played these guys. They have the whole physicality down to a tee.

     Footit and Chocolat were a pair that got together at the turn of the 20th century and took France by storm. This film suggests they almost had rock star status at the time.  But their act was predicated upon the black guy copping it bad from the white guy.  And they weren’t trying to make a political statement either.  It’s just that everyone thought a white guy kicking and slapping a black guy was pretty funny.

      The film suggests they became very close friends at the beginning, as they worked hard perfecting their act.

      Footit had devised the routine and recruited Chocolat as his sidekick. Nevertheless he happily shared the fame, and the accolades and even a fair portion of the money, which Chocolat managed with alarming imprudence.

     Although there are many happy highlights, and quite a few laughs in this beautifully photographed film, it’s a sad story in some ways as we watch Chocolat be selected and trained by Footit and  ascend to the most popular circus act in Paris only to see Chocolat wasting his money on addictions.

      Unfortunately Chocolat’s developing political awareness did not help him either.  Rightly, he began to question the ethics of the act he had with Footit.  He attempted to gain real respect and the ultimate acknowledgement from a white middle class audience, by entering a field of the arts where no black man had been. The response and the scene that follows as he staggers through the streets of Paris is a  wonderfully symbolic and  powerful piece of drama both in action and vision.