“Chocolat”, the film

Spirituality, Desire, and Ethics

Abstract

In this article we reflect on the contribution that the movie “Chocolat” may give to discussions on ethics with a focus on the topic of the desire. Launched in 2000, directed by Lasse Hallström, and with adpated screenplay by Joanne Harris. The movie may be comprehended as a narrative about desire in a dialectical movement between the tradition that fossilizes the present and the new, which is represented by a woman that arrives at a village and impacts its people. Accompanied only by her daughter, she promotes a Revolution in the desire (that transforms the body) of the villagers through her cooking. The movie questions a Cartesian based anthropological understanding that may raise impasses subject to ethical debates. So, the “Chocolat” aids the critique of this dualistic anthropology by discussing the dynamics of desire and unveiling its deeper dimension. After arguing on such anthropological foundation of ethics, we present a critical reflection on the desire drawing from Christian spirituality. Finally, based on Rubem Alves’ Theopoetics, we highlight some elements of the movie that display an anthropological understanding that set desire as central element that gives motion to human life and must not be neglected, but integrated to the experience of a spirituality that may inspire an ethics guided to the defense of life. Methodologically the article runs an exploratory documental and bibliographical analysis, assuming that cinema is an appropriate language to discuss religion and religious revelation.