History is a rich vault of forgotten stories which often are well worth telling. That’s also the case for Monsieur Chocolat (Omar Sy), who was the first successful black circus artist who made a name for himself at the end of the 19th century, but also had to struggle with preconceptions people had.
It is 1886 and before he becomes famous as Monsieur Chocolat, Rafeal Padilla works at a travelling circus. He is depicted a savage, walking around in a tiger skin and with a bone through his nose, scaring the audience. Clown Footit (James Thierrée) seems to have hit the low point of his career and manages to convince the circus boss that he will be able to come up with a new act, together with Padilla. The two start working together, which results in something no one has seen before. Through word of mouth they manage to get an invitation to come to Paris and work for the most famous circus there. It doesn’t only mean success and money, as problems come up which mean the bond the two have becomes strained. Monsieur Chocolat wants to prove himself in the Paris of that day and show that he can be more than just a clown.
Omar Sy has previously shown that he is great at comedy with his role in Intouchables and therefore is perfect for this role. He manages to depict Monsieur Chocolat as a complex character, who despite the success still is considered to be lesser by the people in Paris. It’s something he wants to change. He demands to earn as much money as Footit and when a advertisement wants to depict him as an ape he protests. All those issues also underneath the surface when he’s acting as the clown in the circus, resulting in the performance not always going as Footit would like. The end result is a moving drama that’s been realised successfully that manages to make the time period come alive. An interesting detail is a moment during which the brothers Lumière come by with the camera I recently saw in the documentary Lumière and Company. So actual footage of the real Rafael Padilla exists, which is shown at the end of the film. So that makes Monsieur Chocolat the second movie about this clown, but the first which manages to tell the story about the difficulties this man faced, not only from society, but also his inner unrest.
