Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Chocolat the clown, the first black stage performer in France, goes from anonymity to fame after forming an unprecedented duo with fellow performer Footit in the very popular in Belle Epoque Paris. But easy money, gambling, and discrimination take their toll on their friendship and Chocolat's career.
This French biographical drama about Rafael Padilla, the first Black stage performer in France, tells an important and underrepresented historical story set during the Belle Époque. The film benefits from a strong lead performance by Omar Sy and an interesting look at racism in early entertainment, but the narrative follows a fairly conventional rise-and-fall biopic arc without many surprises. The cinematography captures the period adequately without being visually distinctive. The ending, depicting Chocolat's decline due to gambling and discrimination, feels rushed and somewhat emotionally muted given the weight of the subject matter. The novelty lies in the subject — a largely forgotten figure in French cultural history — though the storytelling approach itself is fairly traditional for the genre.