![]() ![]() ![]() His life was a tragic one in many respects with Rafael sold from poverty in Cuba where he had no memory of his birth parents to what amounted to slavery (though it was technically illegal after an 1862 law change in Spain) with the wealthy Castaño family who treated him so poorly that he ran away at the age of 15 or so, working in a series of oddjobs to make ends meet. Monsieur Chocolat, from director and co-screenplay writer Roschdy Zem, falls somewhere in-between, existing as much as a harsh spotlight on race relations in France at the turn of the twentieth century as a biographical exploration of the life of Rafael/Chocolat (Omar Sy), an Afro-Cuban who found fame in late nineteenth fame as an “Auguste” (fool) clown, both solo and in partnership with the likes of Englishman Georges Foottit (James Thiérrée) who is featured in the film. Biopics are, in many ways, as reviled as they are loved.ĭone well, with inventiveness and a willingness to showcase creatively some core period in that person’s life that speaks best to who they were throughout, biopics are an illumination, a artistic snapshot grants compelling insight to figures often defined by public persona and not much else.ĭone poorly, however, and you end up with a muddled mess of haphazard chronology and muted insight that does nothing to add substance to the skeleton of popular perception.
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