摘 要

电影《深情巧克力》改编自英国女作家哈妮·琼斯的同名小说《深情巧克力》。这部电影在上映后在世界各地取得了巨大的成功，获得观众和业内人士的一致好评，并获得多项具有影响力的奖项。

这部电影主要讲述在一个法国传统的小镇上，女人受到压制并且反抗的故事。因此，这篇论文旨在分析电影中表现出来的女性的反抗。电影《深情巧克力》中，尽管大多数女人遭受的是不同的窘境，但是她们都感受到了来自窘境的压迫。在这个社会中，有些女人并不被善待，她们是家庭暴力的受害者如同电影中的约瑟芬。有些女人尽管高龄却依然追求自由带来的快乐，如同电影中的阿曼达。有些女人因丈夫的死亡所带来的心灵上的创伤而变得冷漠，如同电影中的卡洛琳。电影的女主角薇安带领小镇上的女人一起为反抗那些困扰她们的窘境，带领她们一起追求她们想要的平等、自由和快乐的生活。

女性的反抗是一个过程。通过对比小镇上的女人思想和行动上的变化，可以清楚地了解在薇安来之前和来之后小镇上女人的整体情况，同时也能知晓她们是如何进行反抗的。不论在何时何地，女性的反抗都是一个有意义的话题。与此相关的文章或多或少都能帮助那些受到压制的女性。

关键词：《深情巧克力》；女性；抗争

Abstract

The film Chocolate is adapted from Joanne Harris’s novel, Chocolate and it has won a big success after being released. It is well received by audiences and industry insiders. Apart from that, it has won several influential prizes worldwide.

The film Chocolate depicts the women’s oppressed situation in a small town and their rebellion against what bothers them. This paper aims at analyzing feminist rebellion embodied in this film. In Chocolate, though most of women encounter different embarrassments, they all feel oppressed by what they suffer from. Some women are not treated well in the society and they are the victims of domestic violence, just like Josephine. Some women are strongly eager for freedom even they are in a ripe age, just like Armanda. Some women are really indifferent because of the trauma of their husbands’ death, just like Caroline. Vianna, the heroine in this film, leads women in the town to rebel against what bothers them and fight for equality, freedom and happy life. Feminist rebellion is a process. By comparing the changes of women’s thoughts and actions, we can clearly find out what women’s situation is before Vianna’s coming and after her coming as well as how they rebel against these embarrassments.

Feminist rebellion is a meaningful topic at any time and any place. And articles related to this topic can help some oppressed women to fight for what they desire.

Key Words: Chocolate；feminist；rebellion

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The Oppressed Women 3

2.1 Josephine: a victim of domestic violence 3

2.2 Armanda: an imprisoner of traditional ethical code 4

2.3 Caroline: an imprisoner of herself 5

3 Women’s Rebellion 7

3.1 Vianna’s rebellion for equality and freedom 7

3.2 Josephine’s rebellion for independence 9

3.3 Armanda’s rebellion for family love and freedom 10

3.4 Caroline’s rebellion for spiritual liberation 11

4 The inspiration in Chocolate 12

4.1 Self-reliance 12

4.2 Self-challenge 12

4.3 Self – improvement 13

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

Feminist Rebellion in the Film Chocolate

1 Introduction

The film Chocolate is directed by Lasse Hallström and is adapted from a novel. Its main characters are Vianna, Josephine, Armanda, Caroline Roux and Comte de Renaud who is the mayor of the town. The story in the film mainly talks about the conflict between the traditional thoughts and new thoughts. The heroine acted by Juliette Binoche is named Vianna who comes to this equable and closed town in France with her daughter and intends to plant here. Before her coming, women in this traditional town are all oppressed by different situations and they cannot get real happy and free life. For example, Josephine suffers from domestic violence and all her life centers on her husband. When her husband is unhappy, she would be beaten by him. On this condition, women like Josephine live hard. After her coming, the new thoughts brought by her have waken some women. They begin to fight for their own right, equality and chance. After released, the film is accepted with great favor in many parts of the world. What’s more, it has been regarded as one of the best films and received Oscar Award.

Abroad, the research into the film Chocolate is quite limited. Searching on Yahoo, google and EBSCO, we could find few articles or books about it.

Compared with the research abroad, the study in China is more satisfactory. Several papers related to the film can be found in CNKI. However, the number of these papers is also far from enough. Different angles have been employed, such as how metaphor is used in this film and what the metaphor means, comparison of narration in this film, analysis about the image of wind and so on. For example, the paper “Analysis of Camera Scene in Film Chocolate” by Li Ning, explores the technique used to show how the plot develops with the change of the scene. Wang Ying, the author analyzes the difference between The Scarlet Letter and Chocolate on obedience and struggle from the angle of religion. “Vision Metaphor in the Film Chocolate” by Xia Liyun mainly talks about the meaning of chocolate which is a significant element throughout this film.

Above all, the research both abroad and at home is quite insufficient. Many other angles can be found as well as the information the film Chocolate wants to express. So we can write something new to fill in the blank. What’s more, it is still meaningful for us to study on feminist rebellion in the movies to call for more women to fight for their rights and to be what they want to be. Additionally, women themselves should be independent and strengthen their awareness of protecting themselves.

2 The Oppressed Women

There are three major female characters in the film. They are Josephine Muscat, Armanda and Caroline. Josephine Muscat is oppressed in patriarchy society, Armanda is constrained by traditional ethical codes and Caroline is imprisoned by herself.

2.1 Josephine: a victim of domestic violence

Josephine’s husband always beats her and she suffers a lot from domestic violence. She is a daughter of a man who once collaborated with Germans and the whole town’s people are really disgusted with her because her father helped their enemies before. What’s more, her husband Serge Muscat regards her as a shame and once said if no one except for him did not marry her, Josephine would have been single forever. So we can imagine how her husband treats her. In the film, in an early morning, Josephine knocks at the door of Vianna’s patisserie with a case on her hands. She looks both sad and happy.

“He was so drunk…He woke up and saw me packing…he tried to come after me, but I had already tied his feet with his belt…Boom! Right on his face…It’s so stupid, is it? Sometimes I even forget what really happened. ”^[1]

Josephine speaks to Vianna with her voice hoarse and cracked. She is both happy and sad. She is sad because of her terrible experience that her husband is drunk and beats her. She is happy because of her courage to revolt against his husband and leave his house for Vianna’s. The injuries her husband brings to her is inevitable. Maybe we cannot get the knowledge of the details how her husband beats her beautiful forehead and leaves an ugly scar there. Nevertheless, we can come to a conclusion that this thing must happen frequently for Josephine is cowardly and is resigned to this kind of things when facing his husband.

The domestic violence from Surge leads to her timid character. When Vianna takes a bar of chocolate to her, she looks at her surprisingly. It seems that no one has ever treated her so well. If her husband treats her well, she would not feel so surprised and flattered. And when her husband calls her, she splits the chocolate out quickly. She is scared of being discovered by her husband that she is eating something good. She is so timid, like a mouse. Besides, the first scene about Josephine in the film Chocolate is really impressed. In the church filled with a pious atmosphere, everyone whoever is adult or the little boy, is focused on what the clergyman is saying, except for Josephine looks around and her long and uncovered fringe flies in the cold wind. Besides, she seems to have worked for long time and her clothes are full of dust, looking so haggard. No man wants their wives to be dressed like that. However, Josephine’s clothes areworn out, making her like an old person. Her eyes are imbued with fear and she quickly takes a bar of chocolate from the little boy’s bag who is seated in front of her and then sticks it in her pocket. In this town, maybe everyone in the town, especially women like Josephine is forced to limit their desires. They cannot always do what they like. They are suppressed by their husbands. Maybe this is the reason why Josephine gets happiness from stealing because it can get away from being discovered and scolded by others, especially her husband. She carefully protects her small secret. She lives so watchfully and reverently.