Bovie Movie

The most tempting of all sweets becomes the key weapon in a battle of sensual pleasure versus disciplined self-denial in this comedy. In 1959, a mysterious woman named Vianne (Juliette Binoche) moves with her young daughter into a small French village, where much of the community’s activities are dominated by the local Catholic church. A few days after settling into town, Vianne opens up a confectionery shop across the street from the house of worship — shortly after the beginning of Lent. While the townspeople are supposed to be abstaining from worldly pleasures, Vianne tempts them with unusual and delicious chocolate creations, using her expert touch to create just the right candy to break down each customer’s resistance. With every passing day, more and more of Vianne’s neighbors are succumbing to her sinfully delicious treats, but the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), the town’s mayor, is not the least bit amused; he is eager to see Vianne run out of town before she leads the town into a deeper level of temptation. Vianne, however, is not to be swayed, and with the help of another new arrival in town, a handsome Irish Gypsy named Roux (Johnny Depp), she plans a “Grand Festival of Chocolate,” to be held on Easter Sunday. Based on the novel by Joanne Harris, Chocolat features a distinguished supporting cast, including Judi Dench, Lena Olin, Carrie-Anne Moss, Peter Stormare, Hugh O’Conor, and Leslie Caron.

Three couples endure the living hell that is the happiest day of their lives in this comic mockumentary. Confetti is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious wedding magazine, and publisher Antoni (Jimmy Carr) and editor Vivien (Felicity Montagu) have made a career out of documenting the cutting edge in nuptial ceremonies. Antoni and Vivien have decided to stage a contest to find the most original wedding concepts in Britain; the Confetti staff will narrow the field down to three candidates, help the couples stage their weddings, and treat the grand prize winner to a major photo spread in the magazine as well as a new home worth 500,000 pounds. Before long, Antoni and Vivien announce the finalists: Josef and Isabelle (Stephen Mangan and Meredith MacNeill), fitness enthusiasts who want a tennis-themed wedding; Matt and Sam (Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson), whose ceremony will be inspired by Hollywood movie musicals; and Michael and Joanna (Robert Webb and Olivia Colman), a pair of naturists who seldom wear clothes and want to be nude throughout the ceremony). Veteran wedding planners Archie Heron (Vincent Franklin) and Gregory Hough (Jason Watkins) are hired to help each couple have a day they’ll always remember, though they may not look back on their work with fondness. Confetti was the second theatrical feature from director Debbie Isitt; all the dialogue was improvised by the film’s cast during the filming.

This is probably Peter Greenaway’s most famous (or infamous) film, which first shocked audiences at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and then on both sides of the Atlantic. A gang leader (Michael Gambon), accompanied by his wife (Helen Mirren) and his associates, entertains himself every night in a fancy French restaurant that he has recently bought. Having tired of her sadistic, boorish husband, the wife finds herself a lover (Alan Howard) and makes love to him in the restaurant’s coziest places with the silent permission of the cook (Richard Bohringer). Though less cerebral than Greenaway’s other films, featuring deadly passions reminiscent of Jacobean revenge tragedies of the early 17th century, the picture still offers the director’s usual ironic and paradoxical comments on the relations between eating and sex, love and death. The film is at once funny and horrific, and those who are not used to Greenaway’s peculiar style might be even disgusted or shocked; however, one might mention Sacha Vierny’s brilliant camerawork, Jean-Paul Gaultier’s gaudily stylized costumes, and Michael Nyman’s somber, pulsating music, which will haunt the viewer long after the film’s end.