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Monsieur chocolat1/27/2024 ![]() When he first comes across Chocolat, Foottit is a once-famous clown whose career is on the slide. But much else rings true and Zem's spirited evocation of Paris bohemia, fin-de-siecle style, has turned the film into a box-office hit in France, as well as exciting debate about race relations. Nor did Foottit first discover him in a country circus, wearing a leopard skin and frightening the customers with his pretence at being a cannibal. As far as I can tell, Chocolat did not go on stage in Shakespeare's Macbeth, although he did appear in a parody of Verdi's opera. Then he stops clowning to play Othello and nothing is the same again.ĭirector Roschdy Zem, who's of Moroccan heritage, and screenwriter Cyril Gely have added a few fictional flourishes here. Weary of catering to his audience's delight in seeing him demeaned by the bossy Foottit, he starts turning the tables. ![]() ![]() Now he's back on film, played by Omar Sy ( The Intouchables) as an ebullient charmer who is happy about being paid big money for being the butt of the joke until one day he isn't. Then, almost a century later, he was resurrected by author and dramatist Gerard Noiriel, who wrote a play about him, followed by a biography. Both performers eventually took to the bottle and Chocolat, alias Rafael Padilla, died in poverty in 1917. Omar Sy (left) and James Thierree star in Monsieur Chocolat, a box-office hit in France that has stirred debate about race relations.
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