巧克力情人

一个月前看了墨西哥片子《恰如水之于巧克力》，看完仍不知题目含义，google了一下，原来南美人民用水，而非牛奶来冲热巧克力喝，所以这个题目可以意译为“水乳交融”，当然这就忽略了它在西班牙语中的特殊意义了，嘻嘻。不过当时我借这盘电影却纯粹是因为名字古怪有趣。只是，回家后俺看到包装盒上推荐语上的Erotic（情色）字样时，不禁愕然且黑线满脸袅……

没想到片子竟出乎意料的好看。于我而言，这部片子各个组合元素的丰富和饱满前所未有，就像片中那似乎被红色果汁浸透的傍晚天空，带着不可捉摸却又实实在在的色彩和厚度，而其中掺杂的魔幻更是缤纷得让人倾倒。比方说，女主角 Tita精于厨艺，能把她的情感化到烹调的食物当中，让吃的人也产生类似的情绪反应——悲伤的她为大姐婚礼制作的蛋糕，让所有来宾都悲痛欲绝；心中满着爱的她烤的玫瑰花瓣鹌鹑，使一家人情欲汹涌，尤其严重的是她的二姐，澡房的水浇不熄欲火，她赤身裸体冲了出去，被闻风而来（这可是真正的闻“风”，或者用科学的话说，性外激素，哈哈）的骑兵带走……更妙的是这些魔幻色彩绝非吸引观众目光的噱头。处女哺乳乍一看觉得荒诞，但这为Tita为侄子死去而精神失常预先做了铺垫。医生来接Tita离开农场去他家治疗时，她披着的毯子拖下了马车，无穷无尽地顺路延伸下去，让人想起她绵长的爱情抑或悲哀。伴随Tita死去母亲的魂灵而来的，除了电闪雷鸣，还有和她生前无二的威势和控制力。Tita慢慢鼓起勇气，不止喝退了亡灵，也喝来了侄女自由婚姻的权力。

时间久了，魔幻淡去，人物形象倒是越发饱满分明。Tita是典型的传统女性，擅长烹调，热爱家事，善良驯服，心中满着对恋人的爱，对孩子的爱。这爱最终让她克服了对强权母亲的恐惧，开始主宰自己的生活。让我印象更深的是Tita的母亲。虽然专制强横，牺牲了小女儿的婚姻幸福，她却不失为一位骄傲坚强的女性，独自一人管理农场，带大三个女儿，招婿上门，一切处理得井井有条。她能手劈西瓜，流亡匪徒闯进时毫不犹豫鸣枪示警。她也不是没有脆弱的一面。二女儿跟随叛乱的骑兵而去，她烧掉了女儿的出生证、照片以示决裂，却跌坐在女儿房间里独自哽噎。她死后，Tita发现母亲内心埋藏多年的秘密爱恋，终于让她原谅了母亲，当然不是从女儿的角度，而是同为女人，她太熟悉爱别离的痛苦。Tita的二姐是个特别的存在。Tita若是温润的土地，她就是风，时而迅急时而软和，但总是刮向远方。她或许是作者心目中的理想女性之一，虽然出场时间不多，她不同一般的潇洒气度，对内心的追随，对事态的判断力，对姐妹的关心，在富于表现力的细节中无一遗漏，也深深吸引了我的目光。

我无比热爱片子的叙述角度——Tita的侄孙女Esperanza在厨房中，从Tita遗留的菜谱谈起，引出整个故事。结尾时镜头又回到Esperanza身上，早已去世的Tita和她的侄女出现在她的身侧，微笑对视。这一刻时间压缩，无数回忆奔涌而来，望向Esperanza的目光，是经历了种种爱恨得失之后的平静，是看到深爱的人终获幸福的欣慰，是“新的故事已经开始，我们可以退场”的安心。这个结尾把人的思绪引向时间深处。延绵的血脉，炽热的情感，湮没的过往，那是我们永恒的话题。

照旧，三年前的文字。已经不能全权代表我对电影的理解和对爱情、生活的理解了，但放在这里，以回顾一下从前自己的视角，也是有意义的。



Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) is a novel written by Laura Esquivel. Published in 1989, it was a long-running best seller in Mexico. (Shaw 37) It remained over a year on the best-seller list of the New York Times and was translated into twenty-nine languages. (Shaw 37) In 1991, Mexican film director Alfonso Arau, also Laura’s husband, decided to adpat the best-seller a film. Then Como agua para chocolate turned out to be the most commercially successful Mexican film of the 1990s. (Shaw 37) However, the high gross of the film did not give a true impression of the state of the Mexican film industry. (Shaw 38) In 1990s, low-quality genre films relying on sex and violence prevailed the national film market in Mexico. (Shaw 38)
The film does not reflect a true picture of Mexico either. Following the government’s model of public and private investment, involving Aviasco (a Mexican airline) and the Ministry for Tourism, the film “promotes a conservative, romantic image of rural Mexico that would please the Ministry of Tourism and that belied the reality of mass poverty and ever increasing urbanization.” (Shaw 39) “It is represented as a rural land, which has maintained its culinary and social traditions.” (Shaw 51) The director has commented “the government is very grateful because the film did a great job in promoting tourism and the image of Mexico”. (Shaw 39)


From Novel to Film
Como agua para chocolate tells the story around the Garza family during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917). (Lopez-Rodriguez 62) In the ranch ruled by the family, Mama Elena makes decisions for her three daughters—Gertrudis, Rosaura, and Tita—regardless of their own desires. (Lopez-Rodriguez 62) Both the novel and the film begin with Esperanza’s (Tita’s niece) careful reading of an inherited cookbook from Tita, and it brings back the memory of the Garzas. Tita is born on the dinner table in the kitchen in 1910. She is brought up by the family servant Nacha in the kitchen, where she learns her talent in cooking. As the youngest daughter of the family, Tita is destined to care for Mama Elena till the last second and is prohibited to marriage. However, in a family dinner, young Tita met a young man, Pedro Muzquiz. They soon fell in love with each other and claimed each other as the only love in the life. Pedro proposes to the Garzas, but Mama Elena turns it down. Instead, Pedro marries Tita’s sister Rosaura in order to be near to Tita. While Mama Elena keeps tormenting Tita, Tita confines herself in the kitchen, making all the delicious and creative dishes for the family. Magically, her emotion is blended into every dish she makes and has the ability to influence everyone who tastes the food she makes.
In Esquivel’s novel, the story is presented as a cookbook, sequenced with twelve months, with a recipe for each month. The twelve recipes each conclude a chapter, carrying special historical and ethnic implications within the ingredients and the procedures. Although the loving way the camera focuses on food makes clear to the film audience that food is a central character in this story”, the film shifts away from the original structure of the novel and brings the storyline without recipes as separation. (Lopez-Rodriguez 63) Many detailed dishes mentioned in the novel is only given a glimpse in the film, or even omitted, while the other ones are described carefully with the camera language. For instance, the February recipe of capones (capons) and the April recipe of mole de guajolote con almendra y ajonjoli (turkey in almond and sesame sauce) are both cut from the plot, and caldo de colita de res (oxtail soup) and tortas de Navidad (Christmas rolls) are only provided with the simplest description. The several recipes Alfonso Arau focuses on are pastel Chabela de bodas (Chabela wedding cake), codornices en petalos de rosa (quail in rose-petal sauce) and chiles en nogada (chili peppers in walnut sauce). Coincidently, two of these three dishes are specially made for the two weddings in the film, and each brings out a different effect. The emphasis of food in the film and the implications of the recipes will be explored later in the essay.
The rest of the story continues in a traditional way. Rosaura soon delivers a baby, and Tita uses her virgin breast milk to feed her. After finding out the vaguely unbroken relationship between Tita and Pedro, Mama Elena sends Pedro and Rosaura away, as well as the baby. Away from Tita, the baby dies, and the reason is believed to be the food. Tita goes insane and hides herself in the dovecote until John Brown, the ranch doctor, picks her up to his house. John takes care of Tita and helps Tita to reconstruct the confidence to face life. Determined to start a new life, Tita accepts John’s proposal. The moment Tita and Pedro reunite on the ranch, both of them know that their passion for each other does not go away. The day John leaves the ranch they have an affair. As a husband, John is always so understanding and tolerant. He forgives the adultery. At the end of the film, John drives car away for business. Pedro takes Tita to the barn house. In the house, the ghost of Nacha appears and lights every candle in the house. In the soft yellow light, Pedro and Tita’s love “finally blossom”. (Hart 172) Metaphorically indicated by the narrator, “all the matches inside Pedro’s body light at the same time”, and the brightness brings him to the eternal of peace. Tita begins to swallow matches, with the memory involving Pedro and her flashing back. She catches fire from the inside meets Pedro in the tunnel to eternity of love.
As the script written by the author of the novel, the film is able to retain the original flavors. The story is kept as original, and with the help of visual language, the film can do what the words cannot do. It puts imagination into reality on screen as well as transforming the story into a sumptuous Mexican feast.


Food in Como agua para chocolate
As “an important topic in the field of cultural materialism”, food is able to “bring to the forefront those elements of life that were traditionally overlooked because they belonged to the domestic sphere and not to the public, broader, male sphere.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 66) Many directors apply food as a medium to convey the meanings. In Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman, food is a mirror to Chinese culture and ideology. In Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat, food is a gifted creation of magic potion to cure the lagging and obstinacy of the town residents. In Sandra Nettleback’s Bella Martha, food gives a place for communication and enables people to know each other.
In Como agua para chocolate, Alfonso Arau puts tons of emphasis on food. Food plays the central role artistically and commercially. Preparation for food is provided close-up features in the film. The scenes are treated with tenderness and sequential details. Lighting, music and narratives accompanies to strengthen the emotions implicated by the scenes. More than visual enjoyment, the recipes also connect the characters and the storyline. Conclusively, the use of food generally serves functions in four dimensions: as a tag of identity, a language of communication, an expression of creativity and freedom, and an eye into Mexican society in revolutionary and contemporary period. It also offers a space for the story to turn into a magic realistic fairytale.

Language of Expression
Food is a metaphor for emotion throughout the film. Gifted as a very sensual woman, Tita is “repeatedly portrayed tasting, seeing, smelling, touching, and hearing. It is only logical that she communicates through an activity that comprises all the senses.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 68) At the time when Tita and Pedro firstly fell in love, Tita described “Pedro’s gaze on her shoulders” as “what raw dough must feel when it comes in contact with hot oil”. “Bubbles break out of her body”. The medium of food solidifies abstract feelings in Tita’s world, and Tita is able to resort to expressing her feelings through the creation of delicacy in the limited area of kitchen. In the kitchen, food is translated into a new language. In the film, Tita’s recipes are always related to whatever is happening to her at the time. One of the scenes is that in which Tita prepares the quails in rose petal sauce. Right after “Pedro has given her the roses to congratulate her on her excellent culinary skills on the anniversary of her first year as the house cook, and she uses them in defiance of her mother in this dish.” The cooking process is split in sequential details—peeling of rose petals, bundling the quails, grinding rose petal sauces, and adding a drop of mysterious seasoning—representing as an expression of her love for Pedro. “This scene is accompanied by lush piano music that highlights the connection between romance and the culinary process.” (Shaw 51) Here, “cooking is Tita’s way of telling him what she cannot vocalize.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 69)
Realizing the possible communication between Pedro and her through food, Tita feels “compelled to create more and more recipes that will keep alive the love” that Mama Elena and Rosaura had tried to prohibit. (Lopez-Rodriguez 69) “It is this need to create or re-create delicious dishes that moves Tita to put in writing all the recipes she has received from Nacha; that is how their cookbook is born.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 69)

Territory of Freedom and Creativity
We can understand that the kitchen offers Tita an area of “unrestricted freedom” to escape from Mama Elena’s tyranny. (Shaw 50) In the kitchen, Tita is given a free voice to express herself, a territoriality for creativity. (Lopez-Rodriguez 67) Mama Elena tries to control everything of Tita, restricting her from marriage according to the old convention that the youngest daughter should care for mother till death. But her power is limited outside the kitchen. Due to the lack of culinary experience, she never tells Tita what to cook and how to cook, so cooking provides “an outlet for the creativity Mama Elena is always restraining.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 68) So here Tita finds “a means of self-definition and survival”. (Lopez-Rodriguez 66)
“The liberation through food and cooking is not limited to Tita alone, but also occurs for the people who eat her meals.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 68) In Tita’s territory, her emotions evoked by personal experience are also transferred to others through food. “She feels and she makes others feel.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 69) When blending the flour and eggs for making Rosaura and Pedro’s wedding cake, Tita unintentionally drops a tear into the ingredient. It turns out that during the wedding reception, whoever has a bite of the cake, is reminded of the sorrow of lost love. In an old Spanish love ballad, a sense of melancholy and frustration from “love of their lives” spreads through every guest and the scene culminates in a collective of vomiting. “Uncontrollable outbursts of pleasure, sadness”, which is usually forbidden in the ranch, is let free with the help of Tita’s food. (Lopez-Rodriguez 68)

Kitchen as An Eye
Esquivel has pointed out in an interview: “the kitchen, to me, is the most important part of the house. It is a source of knowledge that generates life and pleasure.” (Hart 173) Como agua para chocolate offers a “feminine kitchen-eye’s view of those turbulent years during Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), which is “at odds with the masculinity rhetoric of the history books with their emphasis on battles and the struggle for civic power.” (Hart 173) “The film, in its content, including modernization, the increase of social inequality, and the growth of feminism. This can be seen in the way that it ignores all of these issues and reinvents the past in such a way as to negate social history. The image of Mexico sold to national and international audiences through the film are filled with nostalgia for a mythical past. In this reinterpretation of the past, gender roles are clearly delineated, class and ethnic tensions are ignored, and nobody goes hungry.” (Shaw 39)
The cookbook received by Esperanza is an essential clue in the film. It connects different races and cultures in the film and “symbolizes not only the loving relationship among women but also the preservation of Nahuatl heritage and its mixture with Spanish and Ceole elements”. (Lopez-Rodriguez 70)
“Nacha and Chencha, members of ethnic minorities, have been denied by the dominant white upper class the possibility of expressing their knowledge through any medium other than the recipes they cherish. By passing the recipes on to the next generation they are not only able to communicate some practical information but to preserve elements of an indigenous culture that would otherwise be lost.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 69)

Construction of Fairytale
Labeled as magical realism, Como agua para chocolate is consisted of numerous fantastic scenes beyond reality and a bunch of fairytale traditions. The main roles in the film have their counterparts, which can be found in traditional fairytales. The romantic heroine Tita is like Cinderella, arduous and kind, while at the meantime suffering the inequality caused by a wicked mother, Mama Elena. Tita is so talented as a maternal role model that she even knows how to deliver the baby. “Bound to the kitchen from the moment of her emblematic birth in this very same room, Tita is treated first by her mother and later by Rosaura as just another servant.” (Lopez-Rodriguez 67) The setting even parallels with the story of Cinderella. John Brown, the fiancé of Tita, is the benevolent, careful and tolerant doctor that can be found in many 18th century fairytales as a positive figure without imperfection. In Como agua para chocolate, his tendance heals Tita’s sorrow for love and his great breath of mind forgives the adultery between Tita and Pedro. Nacha and Chencha are the servants who are satisfied with the status of being ruled and have a loving relationship.
Moreover, besides the setting of the roles, the strange alchemical reaction brought by food and the abrupt passion of people all tell the story in the language of fairytale.



Reference:
Ching, Eric, Christina Buckley, and Angelica Lozano-Alonso. Reframing Latin America. Austin: University of Texas P, 2007. 286-305.
Como Agua Para Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos. Videocassette. Buena Vista Home Video, 1992.
Esquivel, Laura. Como agua para chocolate: novela de entregas mensuales con recetas, amores y remedios caseros. México, D.F.: Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 1989.
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate: a Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies. Trans. Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Halevi-Wise, Yael. "Storytelling in Laura Esquivel's Como agua para chocolate." The Other Mirror: Women's Narrative in Mexico, 1980-1995. Ed. Kristine Ibsen. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997. 123-130.
Hart, Stephen M. A Companion to Latin American Film. Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2004. 171-178.
Lopez-Rodriguez, Miriam. "Cooking Mexicanness: Shaping National Identity in Alfonso Araus Como agua para chocolate." Reel Food. Ed. Anne L. Bower. New York: Routledge, 2004. 61-73.
Segovia, Miguel A. "Only Cauldrons Know the Secrets of Their Soups." Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture& Chicana/O Sexualities. Ed. Alicia G. Alba. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 163-178.
Shaw, Deborah. Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: Ten Key Films. New York: Continuum, 2003. 36-51.


April 6, 2008

A mi me gusta mucho esta pelicula,se trató de una historia sobre el amor . pero no estoy de acuerdo con la idea de Pedro, es injusto para su esposa...

 非诚勿扰里，在男嘉宾反转权利环节，最受青睐的问题之一就是，女方是否会做饭。有人说男人心目中理想的女人是“上得厅堂下得厨房”，还有人说，留住男人的胃就才能留住男人的心。过去听说在日本，婆婆对媳妇的第一个要求就是会做家务，尤其是做饭。因为让男性做家务有损男人的“阳刚之气”。美食，超越了果腹只需，从生存的刚性需求成长为女性的软性服从。但是现在，随着社会经济和女权主义运动的发展，女人渐渐从锅碗瓢盆的束缚中解脱出来，同时也从以家庭为重心的传统中获得解放，而这种解放不再需要依靠白马王子。
　　
　　 在放弃主厨的同时，人们对美食却提出更苛刻的要求。做饭的义务渐渐由社会承担，家务劳动社会化大行其道。19世纪初英国卢德运动，为反对工厂主对工人的压迫而大量捣毁生产机器，结果被残酷镇压。再后来的宪章运动，发展到全国工人大罢工，但同样以失败告终。先且抛开好吃懒做和贪得无厌的恶劣品德，撒泼打翻厨具，愤然出走于厨房真不是一种聪明的“独立宣言”。
　　
　　 我们来看看《恰似水之于巧克力》中的女主人公蒂塔是怎么做的。与其说这是一本食色性质小说，我更愿意把它看做一篇唯美魔幻的女性解放小说。受制于最小的女儿必须终身不嫁且服侍母亲终身的家族传统，可怜的蒂塔只能在厨房找到童年的欢乐和生活的安慰。因食与男主人公培罗结缘，看着他钩摄魂魄的眼神，在那一刻她明白了面团被投进沸腾的油锅里的感觉。侵入体内的热量是那么真实，她觉得自己要像面团一样开始冒泡泡了。但狠心的妈妈紧咬不放，培罗只得通过和蒂塔的大姐姐柔沙结婚来接近他最爱的人。
　　
　　 只是看着自己最喜欢的人和自己的亲姐姐结婚就够残忍的了，蒂塔还得包办婚礼的所有食物。在熬制糖浆的时候，蒂塔的眼泪流进锅里，蛋糕怎么也稠不起来。第二天，每个客人再吃之后都感到一种钻心的疼痛和莫名的惆怅，三三两两蹲在草地上痛哭失去的爱人，继而中邪似的大吐特吐起来。
　　
　　 结婚一个月也正是蒂塔掌管全家饮食的满月纪念，培罗送给蒂塔一束粉红玫瑰，妈妈呵斥扔掉它，而蒂塔却把玫瑰捧在怀里，胸口渗出鲜血，玫瑰变成深红色。这本书当时连载了12个月，每个月份即一道菜谱（除6月以外），而这些菜谱也是真实可做的。蒂塔与培罗不得不时时刻刻保持着距离，但是食物却毫无顾忌地宣泄着深情与激情，直达胃部和身体的每一部分。蒂塔舍不得扔掉这些玫瑰，做出了三月份的鹌鹑玫瑰。玫瑰具有催情作用，再加上爱人的血，好像一种神奇的炼丹术，蒂塔的整个身子仿佛溶进了玫瑰花汁里，溶进了鲜嫩的鹌鹑肉里，溶进了美酒和菜肴的香味中。这就是她进入培罗身体的方式，灼热、妖娆、芬芳，完全是一种美的享受。
　　
　　 蒂塔的二姐乔楚浑身汗如雨下，这些汗都是红色的，散发出像玫瑰花一样强烈、可爱的香味。她几乎要晕倒，冲到淋浴室冲凉，但是体内的热量越来越多，木板的墙裂开燃烧起来，她跑被烧死一丝不挂地跑出淋浴室，这团香味变成一团粉红的云飘到起义军首领头顶，他骑马奔驰，正看见赤身裸体奔跑的乔楚。能量的涌动与互相映补，绚丽的火花瞬间迸发，他们纵马飞奔，热烈得拥抱、接吻。马背的颠簸和他们第一次交融时身体的起伏。
　　
　　 厨房在劳拉·埃斯基韦尔笔下，就是这么浪漫神秘。她说：“我生命中最初的光阴，是在我外婆、我母亲家厨房的炉火旁度过的。我看着这些智慧的女人，在进入厨房这块圣地之后，如何摇身一变而成为女修士，成为炼金师，摆弄着水、风、火、土者组成宇宙的四大元素。”蒂塔无疑就是这样的魔术师的化身，通过食物维持家庭的秩序，维系与家人的关系，同时也维护自身的尊严和爱情。精心制作的佳肴对某些人而言是一种亲昵，对某些人而言也是一种抵抗，每一次共进晚餐，烛光映照下，刀叉相碰的一瞬间一切就不言而喻了。
　　
　　 烹饪有诸多妙用，蒂塔总说秘方在于爱。失去了爱，烹饪便只是烹饪。医生告诉蒂塔，每个人的体内都有制造磷的物质，其实每个人出生时心里就有一盒火柴，但是我们自己不能把他们点燃。我们需要氧气和蜡烛，氧气就是呼吸，氧气可以是任何音乐、爱抚、语言活着声音。一根火柴点然后，我们会有一会儿就沉醉在一种强烈的情感中，激荡过后重归平淡。每个人都必须找到点燃自己心头之火的力量，因为正是那熊熊燃烧使灵魂得到滋养，那烈焰就是灵魂的食粮。如果一个人没有即使找到点燃心头之火的力量，那盒火柴就会受潮发霉，那时候连一根火柴也划不着了。
　　
　　 如果一种强烈的感情把所有的火柴点燃，就会产生眩目的亮光，照耀出一幅我们一般根本看不见的景象；我们的眼前会出现一条明晃晃的隧道，显现出我们在出生时就忘却的道路并呼唤我们重新去获得已失去的神圣本源。灵魂渴望能回到起点，只留下一具行尸走肉。
　　
　　 难怪亨伯特说洛丽塔是他的生命之火了。培罗离开后，妈妈对蒂塔更加严苛，自己亲自哺育的小侄女突然夭折，蒂塔逃离家园，但仍然逃不出对母亲威严和家族传统阴影的笼罩。最后，一碗牛骨汤治愈了她的失语症，汤能治百病，同时也激发了新的生存愿望。但是对食物的挑剔也能摧毁人，蒂塔的妈妈和大姐终于去世，苦恋了22年，他们终于摆脱束缚。
　　
　　 最后这道菜，叫做“核桃辣椒酱”。把洋葱用少许油在锅里炒。洋葱变成蜜饯色后加入肉末、箩籽和少量白糖。肉末炒至金黄色时加入桃子、苹果、核桃仁、葡萄干、巴旦杏仁和切碎的西红柿，直到炒熟为止。炒熟时加入味精。锅干后从火上端下来。接下来，把辣椒放在火上烤，剥掉皮。然后从一边切开，掏出籽和筋丝，把炒好的馅料填入。最后，在这道菜上撒上石榴，吃了这道菜的人爱意勃发。培罗和蒂塔推开房门，二百五十支蜡烛将房间照得雪亮，当他们的激情如瀑布奔腾而下时，屋顶上千余只鸽子飞走，农庄里的牛啊，猪啊，马啊，羊啊也都逃走了。
　　
　　 他们的眼前出现了那条光明隧道，他们的躯体迸发灿烂火花，床罩被点燃了，整个村庄都被点燃了。房间变成了一座爆发的火山，朝四面八方喷射出石头和灰烬，石头升上了高空，爆炸成五光十色的焰火，这焰火，竟持续了一个星期。村庄成了废墟，只有蒂塔的菜谱保留下来。只要有人按照蒂塔的菜谱做饭，她就仍然活着。
　　
　　 突然想起《来来往往》里的林珠，长腿细腰、黑丝袜红指甲，把康伟业这个一生正派的有妇之夫迷得神魂颠倒。他的眼中从此只有林小姐，妻子被他忘到了九霄云外。但在给林珠装修新房的这一天，林珠说，我是永远不会进厨房的，进厨房就等于人老珠黄，要么你做，要么出去吃。这时候康伟业才想起妻子的存在，想起以前那个家。有烟火，才叫家。
　　
　　 现在很多女性和林珠的想法一样，做饭成为择偶条件之一，成为筹码，不仅仅是男人对女人的基本要求，现在也成为女人对男人设置的门槛。《浓情朱古力》中，女人通过食物与另一个男人融为一体，现实生活中的男女却在用食物互相比较和排斥，最终沦落成菜市场的讨价还价，真是毫无浪漫可言了。
　　
　　 “厨房里没有虚掷的光阴。”劳拉·埃斯基韦尔相信通过厨房和劳作，当代女人可以在追求自身独立的同时与地球、宇宙和神灵之间建立一种新的关系。最终成为“对生产与再生产、理性与情感、内在与外在、物质与精神都一视同仁”的人。厨艺就像一种修行，正如入水反复烹煮的巧克力，在烟火中陷入了漫长的自我修炼；正如情爱，被反复兑如时间的水后细火加热，不是每个女人都能在你翻脸怒吼后温情脉脉地说：“我给你煮一碗鸡汤吧”。

（一）古印第安式的宗教信仰
        印第安人认为万物有灵，死去的人将以另一种状态存在于世上。电影中多次出现娜査、艾连娜的亡灵，女主蒂娜家的狗在蒂娜妈妈艾连娜的灵魂出现的时候狂吠，男主拜德罗在花园提议与蒂娜私奔师那只狗冲出来追随他们，以及蒂娜与二姐柔丝在后院吵架时她家的鸡互相追逐，锅里的菜豆拒绝被煮熟等等情节都体现了这一点。
（二）墨西哥人注重吃的拉美饮食文化
        影片中出现大量墨西哥特有的美食文化，婚礼、生日、日常、新年，不同场合吃的东西都有所不同，影片中厨房中制作美食的场景和随后的宴会贯穿了整个故事，彻夜准备婚宴、花费大量时间精力烹制每一道食物都体现出墨西哥人对吃的注重。
（三）注重他人看法、家族利益优先的集体主义文化
       电影中蒂娜的母亲艾连娜、二姐柔丝非常看中家族名誉不惜牺牲自己小女儿的幸福，对于事情的第一关注点在于他人怎么看自己，所以艾连娜与柔丝都要求坚持“小女儿不能出嫁而要服侍自己直到去世”的传统，这两个角色是落后传统文化的迂腐继承者，从始至终都不曾质疑传统的合理性。蒂娜虽然在遭遇与挚爱被迫分开、心爱的外甥死去等一系列痛苦的事情后成为落后传统的反抗者，但她的反抗也是不彻底的，是被生活逼出来的。集体主义文化中，造就了她懦弱，善良的性格，从出生到死去都在为家庭利益贡献自己：服侍一家人起居、照顾柔丝的孩子、帮助外甥女争取幸福，即便，她总是不自知地把家庭集体、把他人利益至于自己的利益至上，所以她拒绝拜德罗提出的私奔，即便在她母亲死后也不愿夺回拜德罗，在姐姐死了，外甥女结婚，每个人都有了幸福后她才想到自己，才和拜德罗正式在一起，而压抑多年的爱情太过激烈，一把引燃了两人生命中的全部火柴，只留下耀眼的光芒与燃尽的残骸。
（四）男权主义、家长权威不可侵犯的大权力距离文化
       在影片中女主母亲艾连娜是家里的一家之主，她压制着所有人，无论是对于家里的仆人还是自己的女儿都永远一副命令的语气，不予亲近。影片中虽然没有很多笔墨描写男权主义，但在宴会上艾连娜跟神父说要让拜德罗和柔丝搬走时，神父回“家里总要有个男人”，他们搬走后果然家里出了事艾连娜意外死去，轻描淡写中即传达出了当时男人被看做是家里顶梁柱庇护者的男权观念，同时拜德罗当初为接近女主而娶女主姐姐的荒谬逻辑竟没有人觉得不对，他结婚后在家里成天无所事事什么都不做，人们默认男人都是对的，男人不能做“女人做的闲杂事务”也反映了当时男人地位比女人高很多的状态，人。这些都是当时社会整个文化下权力距离极大的特点。
墨西哥现在仍有少部分人坚持一些愚昧传统习俗，如父母示超过17岁还没嫁出的女儿为私人物品随意赠人等。
（五）情绪文化
      不同于受东方文化影响的中国属于中性文化，起源于南美洲文化的墨西哥文化在强皮纳斯的文化架构理论中属于情绪文化。影片中大部分人的情绪都是外露的，比如拜德罗与蒂娜双方爱情的流露、情感表达，娜査、今查对女主蒂娜的疼爱心疼等情绪都是直接流露出来的，人物的悲伤与同情一系列情绪都直接表现出来，即便是努力克制自己情绪维持自己形象的传统家长艾连娜，在大女儿赫露蒂斯离家出走后会悄悄去女儿房间哭泣，在得知孙子死讯的时候，眼神掩藏不住努力压抑的深刻的悲伤离家出走后会悄悄去女儿房间哭泣。而没受传统思想束缚的其他角色则表现得更直接更直白。
（六）不断发展的具有多样性和包容性的文化（印第安文化、欧洲文明、美国个人主义文化萌芽）
       因曾遭受入侵，有过一段殖民统治时期，墨西哥常住人口有印第安土著人、欧洲移民、美国人等，各种习俗文化冲突碰撞融合，呈现出多种文化共存。艾连娜和柔丝的显然是印第安传统文化的完全继承者，但同时也有个人主义的萌芽，她们在家族利益之后考虑的便是个人利益，所以她们完全不考虑蒂娜的权利、不关心她们的亲人；蒂娜的大姐蒂斯奔放热情，潇洒自由，注重事情的本质结果而不考虑中间其他人或是其他理由，没有成为传统的居家妇女而是行军打仗豪爽直率，则有欧洲人的影子，反映出一定的欧洲文化；蒂娜做着传统妇女的事情，但她在生活的逼迫下渐渐认清愚昧落后的传统害人不浅，奋起反抗，最终让传统在她这里终结，代表着文化的发展更替，个人主义的萌芽。


个人感悟：
       整部影片带着魔幻主义色彩，融合了各种元素：生活、习俗、文化、饮食、情感，很多人对蒂娜和拜德罗的爱情悲剧印象最深，而我们在观看中印象最深的却是女主母亲艾连娜给女主带来的伤害，无法理解一个母亲怎么可以对自己的女儿残忍至此，同时也无法理解女主为什么不一开始就反抗，为什么不反抗得更彻底一些，然而冷静下来一想，这都是没办法的事，她们都是那个文化大背景的产物，这是由不得她们的，如果不这样，那艾连娜就不是艾连娜，蒂娜就不是蒂娜，《浓情巧克力》也不是这个《浓情巧克力》了。尽管就个人（蒂娜和拜德罗）而言结局是悲剧式的，但就整个时代整个社会却是进步式的（愚昧的传统被打破）。整个社会就是在前人的努力与牺牲下才逐步发展成今天的样子的，而今天的我们终究也将成为“前人”，社会也因此得以不停发展进步。
       最后分享一下影片中个人最喜欢的一段话，是备胎医生John的祖母曾说的：“我们每个人诞生之初，体内都有一盒火柴，我们需要氧气和蜡烛来点燃它，只不过对我们人来说，氧气不是凭空而来的，比如说它来自爱人的呼吸，烛光则可以是任何东西——一首曲子、一句暗语、一个亲昵的爱抚、甚至细微的声音，总之什么都可以，只要可以触发燃点，然后点燃火柴。我们每个人都需要寻找属于自己的燃点，因为只有点燃我们生命中的火柴，才能让我们的灵魂得以滋养。”愿大家都能找到自己的燃点，点亮自己生命的火柴。