Chocolat

Monique and I have conflicting schedules for the next two weekends: He sister's in town this weekend, and I'm going to Potlatch next weekend. So, trying to figure out when we'd see each other next, Monique suggested we get together tonight to see an Oscar-nominated movie. It seems that she has a tradition of trying to see all of the movies nominated for major Oscars when the nominations are announced. Well, that seemed like a fine offer to me! Since I would be working until at least 6 pm, we decided that she'd come down to visit me and see my home, since I've seen hers.

(My cow-orkers were playing Quake when I left, although I did play a couple of games. One of my ever-tactful colleagues tried to goad me into staying to play, saying "You can find another woman over the Internet." Uh-huh. Nice try. Well, okay, not really a nice try.)

Monique said the directions to my place were easy to follow, but she got stuck with finding my actual building. The building numbers are not clearly visible, especially in the dark, and apparently she was unfamiliar with the term "fourplex", thinking it referred to a building with four stories rather than four units. So around 7:30 I get a call from Monique who's on her cell phone, trying to find my building. I go stand outside on the porch, see her car, and wave to her. Thank goodness for cell phones, eh?

(Not that I own one, that is...)

I gave her the grand tour of my apartment (exciting, huh? Well, she seemed to be impressed with the number of feet of bookshelf space I have), and we headed into Mountain View for dinner. We walked the length of Castro St. to show her around, and stopped into a Chinese restaurant I'd never been to before for dinner. It turned out to be quite good, and the lemon chicken in particular was really quite excellent. Must remember it for next time I want Chinese on Castro St.

We also stopped in BookBuyers to look around, although neither of us bought anything. (Monique was sorely tempted by a few things, though, I think!) And then it was off to the movies!

The movie we saw was Chocolat. Monique wanted to go to one of the big AMC theatres with "stadium seating", which basically means huge, cushiony seats with drink holders. There are several of them around here, so it was easy to oblige her!

Chocolat is the story of Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche), the young single mother of the girl Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). In 1959, they come to a small French village at the beginning of Lent and open a chocolate shop. Vianne feels she has a mission - given her by her mother - to spread the joys of the chocolate she makes across the countryside, and especially to closed, uptight villages such as this one. The Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina; basically, he's the mayor) is her adversary, seeing her as bringing corrupting morals into the peaceful village.

Vianne attracts a small following of friends and customers, including her landlady Armande (Judi Dench, artfully swinging between crusty and endearing) and battered wife Josephine (Lena Olin, who has a strange superficial resemblance to Susan Sarandon, but whose performance seemed more genuine to me). The story focuses on the building tension between Vianne and members of the village, which becomes stronger with the arrival of a group of river rats, led by the charming musician Roux (a nearly-unrecognizable Johnny Depp, at least for those of us mainly familiar with him from his Tim Burton films; Depp deserves some sort of award for the range of parts he's played in the last ten years).

The film has many facets. Its general tone is one of pleasant whimsy, but it also has its romantic side (with a clever sexual undercurrent), its dark side (the Comte's hold on the village has several unpleasant side-effects), and its tragic side. Thematically, though, it's exploring the stress between obligation and happiness, a stress which is finally most embodied by Vianne herself, who feels she has an obligation to provide happiness.

The film wouldn't work without its delightfully clever script, with plenty of double meanings (double entendres and otherwise), and lots of plain talking mixed in with the metaphors. (In this way it bears a resemblance to many of the classic films I enjoy, which rely more on a good script than anything else for their success.) My favorite double meaning in the film didn't occur to me until ten or fifteen minutes afterwards, when I realized the double meaning in Roux's name, which cleverly indicates why his actions at the very end of the film cause a shift in Anouk's life.

A very enjoyable film. A best picture winner? I don't know about that. I'd pick it over Gladiator, but I haven't seen the other nominees.

And y'know, I can't really talk much about the rest of the date because then I'd have to kill you. Or maybe myself!

But yes, I had a wonderful evening. It seems like we spent nearly all of it holding hands. That's a good sign, right?

And tomorrow I'm going to dinner with Lucy who I think is going to tease me about Monique and I keeping our dating interest secret for the few weeks before our first date. Bring it on, Lucy! Trish has already gotten in her shots!