Chocolat

• ISBN13: 9780140282030
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Chocolate is the beautiful and captivating comedy from the acclaimed director of the Cider House Rules! Nobody could have imagined the impact that the striking Vianne(Binoche) would make when she arrived in a tranquil, old-fashioned French town. In her very unusual chocolate shop, Vianne begins to create mouth-watering confections that almost magically inspire the strailaced villagers to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness! But it is not until another stranger, the handsome Roux arrives in town that Vianne is finally able to recognize her own desires!With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the he! art-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) se! es Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the! arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff ShannonWith movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad ! metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable ! (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a ca! ricature ), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff ShannonGreeted as "an amazement of riches . . . few readers will be able to resist" by The New York Times, Chocolat is an enchanting novel about temptation, pleasure, and the ultimate folly of self-denial. The town of Lansquenet, solemnly preparing for Lent, is set astir when Vianne Rocher and her spirited daughter arrive on the heels of the carnival and open a chocolate shop across the square from the church. Vianne's uncanny ability to perceive her customers' private discontents and alleviate them with just the right chocolate treats quickly charms the villagers--and enrages Pere Reynaud, the conservative local priest. Certain that only a witch could create such magical cures, Reynaud vows to block the chocolate festival Vianne plans for Easter Sunday and to run her out of town forever. Witch or not (she'll never tell), Vian! ne soon sparks a dramatic confrontation between those who prefer the cold comforts of the church and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure.

"Delectable . . . delicious"-- (USA Today)

"Part fairy tale, part morality tale, laden with high farce and tongue-in-cheek humor . . . suffused with lush detail and finely drawn interesting characters."-- Philadelphia Inquirer

"Harris writes with verve and charm . . . if Colette and Hawthorne had collaborated, the result might have been this serious delight."-- The New Yorker

The perfect treat for Valentine's Day and EasterVianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter, Anouk, arrive in the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes--"a blip on the fast road between Toulouse and Bourdeaux"--in February, during the carnival. Three days later, Vianne opens a luxuriant chocolate shop crammed with the most tempting of confections and offering a mouth-watering variety of h! ot chocolate drinks. It's Lent, the shop is opposite the chur! ch and o pen on Sundays, and Francis Reynaud, the austere parish priest, is livid.

One by one the locals succumb to Vianne's concoctions. Joanne Harris weaves their secrets and troubles, their loves and desires, into her third novel, with the lightest touch. There's sad, polite Guillame and his dying dog; thieving, beaten-up Joséphine Muscat; schoolchildren who declare it "hypercool" when Vianne says they can help eat the window display--a gingerbread house complete with witch. And there's Armande, still vigorous in her 80s, who can see Anouk's "imaginary" rabbit, Pantoufle, and recognizes Vianne for who she really is. However, certain villagers--including Armande's snobby daughter and Joséphine's violent husband--side with Reynaud. So when Vianne announces a Grand Festival of Chocolate commencing Easter Sunday, it's all-out war: war between church and chocolate, between good and evil, between love and dogma.

Reminiscent of Herman Hesse's short story "Au! gustus," Chocolat is an utterly delicious novel, coated in the gentlest of magic, which proves--indisputably and without preaching--that soft centers are best. --Lisa Gee, Amazon.co.uk

Living with a Black Dog: His Name Is Depression

• ISBN13: 9780740757433
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

BLACK DOG - DVD MovieAn ex-con daredevil trucker must reinfect himself with white-line fever in order to save his wife and kid from nasty gunrunners in this enjoyably mindless, twisted-metal-fest from the director of Passenger 57. Longtime MIA action stud Patrick Swayze (who snagged the part after Kevin Sorbo had to suddenly vacate due to health problems) is even more expressionless than usual in the lead role, but helmer Kevin Hooks compensates with a seriously rocking country soundtrack, some pleasantly eccentric supporting characters (including erstwhile crooner Randy Travis and a way-over-the-top Meatloaf as a psychotic trucker preaching damnation by the dashboard light), and--most importan! tly--a whole lot of rolling iron getting smashed in spectacularly kinetic fashion. A low-down, down-home, cotton-picking flick that blows up real good. --Andrew WrightOne in four women and one in six men will suffer from depression at least once in their life. Few are immune. It was the greatly admired Winston Churchill, a depression sufferer for much of his life, who nicknamed this human condition "Black Dog."

Living with a Black Dog is perhaps the most useful book ever created about depression. In simple text and strongly supportive illustrations, this slim volume examines, explains, and demystifies one of the most widespread and debilitating problems afflicting modern society.

Whether you've struggled with your own Black Dog for years, wondered why you're feeling sort of "ruff" lately, or known someone shadowed by a dark canine, Living with a Black Dog is for you. Artist and writer Matthew Johnstone, a depression sufferer himself, delivers! a moving and uplifting insight into life with this unsavory c! ompanion . Even better, the book shows the strength and support to be found within and around us to tame this shaggy beast and ultimately bring it to heel.

Johnstone's book doesn't pretend to have all the answers. It doesn't resort to simple "dog tricks" for dealing with depression. But Living with a Black Dog does deliver understanding, hope, and the assurance that Black Dog days are not forever.

Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)

• The Lost Tape - 15 minutes of terrifing footage
• Special Report - Zombie Invasion
• 12+ minutes of deleted scenes
• Commentary with director Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman

Packed with more blood, more gore, and more bone-chilling, jaw-dropping thrills, Dawn of the Dead Unrated Director's Cut is the version too terrifying to be shown in theaters! Starring Mekhi Phifer, Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley in an edgy, electrifying thrill-ride.

When a mysterious virus turns people into mindless, flesh-eating zombies, a handful of survivors wage a desperate, last-stand battle to stay alive…and human.Are you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn't remake a classic, but Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero's 1978 original was sacred ground for hor! ror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder's action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero's continuing zombie saga. Romero's indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it's arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting--in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak--a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero's film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. --Jeff S! hannon