Happy Birthday Mr Chocolate! A perfect excuse to binge on chocolate and romance this weekend

World Chocolate Day is July 7 and International Chocolate Day is September 13. I wondered why marketers for chocolate could not come to a consensus. Then realised that July 7, 1550, is when Europe first tasted chocolate, and September 13 is the birthday of Milton S Hershey who first added caramel to chocolate and gave us the little Hershey’s Kisses and Milk Chocolate.

For some of us, every day is chocolate day. And when you’re eating chocolate, you need to cuddle up to your loved one and watch some fun, frothy and some unforgettable romances. Don’t even bother to search for ‘Chocolate’ on either Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. The selection will make you roll your eyes and reach out for something stronger than coffee. How do all these smarmy, honey-dripping romances get made? Mills & Boon are great 55-minute read if you are a young woman who believes a mousy girl who has a hidden sass will find a super rich, handsome boss who will suddenly discover passion in their inadvertent kiss. The same stories that we read like romance were going out of style as young women make for seriously awful movies listed on Netflix. Where is the airline puke bag when you need one?

I could tell you to watch Like Water For Chocolate, or the delicious, sinful Juliette Binoche film Chocolat, but those would be obvious choices for chocolate-related movies. Let’s explore a different, darker list of films to watch while eating chocolate this weekend.

Have you ever felt the lust, the hunger, the yearning when you see a man make dinner for his long lost love? In a scene that starts with, ‘Be right with you!’ When Chiron walks into Kevin’s restaurant. Shakespeare was wrong, not music, but it is food that you make for the one you love that sears your souls. The cooking is so raw in its emotions, that it is better than any explicit lovemaking, any scorching kiss you may have seen in the movies. And then you realise that you are so overwhelmed by emotion, you are crying.

The film is based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. If you are watching it with someone you love, you won’t mind it if both of you forget that chocolate you were sharing and weep out of the love in your hearts. Moonlight (on Amazon Prime Video) is perhaps the most tumultuous love story to have come out of Hollywood in a long, long time. After a while it won’t matter that it is love felt by two men. It dissolves all differences and will make you yearn for a love like what they share.

If you want to put away your box of tissues and laugh with your lover, then a must watch is another film on Amazon Prime Video, and it’s called Fading Gigolo. Although for principles I hold strongly I will not ask you to watch Woody Allen, but this is a John Turturro film and if you need to find a reason to eat more chocolate, this film would be that film to watch.

‘There’s this woman,’ Liev Schreiber (in the scariest role of his filmography in my opinion) says, ‘You have never seen her smile.’ This movie has an enviable cast, and is written so well, you will want to order fish when you are ready to step out of this lockdown and go to a restaurant with your lover.

Speaking of food, I know lots of people who vow to give up this or that food as prayers to the Gods for the benefit of their kids or to find a good husband and so on. But imagine giving up lusting for 40 days to get over a broken relationship? 40 Days And 40 Nights on Netflix is a fun trip to watch fate intervene in Josh Hartnett’s life to stop him from fulfilling his vow of abstinence.

But when you want to watch how love can change a man’s life options, especially when Scarlett Johansson is someone you fall in love with, then tune in to Don Jon on Netflix. A funny tale about love. Or lust. Or both.

And you will experience the joy of laughing as you finish off all the chocolate that’s in the house and wish you could tear into that hard plastic of chocolate sauce and lick the insides of the bottle. Hey! We’re not judging! Happy watching chocolate movies.

Manisha Lakhe Is A Poet, Film Critic, Traveller, Founder Of Caferati — An Online Writer’s Forum, Hosts Mumbai’s Oldest Open Mic, And Teaches Advertising, Films And Communication.