With 5 nominations, the sweet dreamy "Chocolat" enters the Oscar race: Best picture, best soundtrack, best screenplay, best actress for Juliette Binoche and best supporting actress for Judi Dench.

Lasse Hallström's chocolate consumption can't be hold responsible for that, he tries "not to eat too much chocolate because it contains so much caffeine. That prevents me from sleeping." Also, he cannot confirm the conventions of foreign cultures which say that chocolate is an aphrodisiac:

"Either it doesn't work or I am already that passionate that it can't be enhanced by chocolate."

The crew of "Chocolat" however "nibbled a lot. We had real pralines and fake plastic ones. It happened from time to time that one of the extras mixed them up and bit into plastic. A few times we had to call for a dentist…….I don't think I'll do another movie about chocolate soon!", says Hallström laughing.

To the very optimistic ending of "Chocolat - the community accepts the outsiders, becomes more tolerant - , the director adheres completely. He likes topics which "extract positive things out of life. Stories that cause warm feelings in the audience. As long as they don't get kitschy or seek refugee in false hopes."

New for Hallström were the "lyric and magical elements" since his movies are normally "more realistic". But even if he's "terribly critical" towards his own work, in the end he was satisfied with the mix out of realistic and poetic moments on the screen.

In spite of the success "Chocolat" is only an exception for Hallström. Classic melodramas like "Cider House Rules" he deems more his style. He's always looking for "strong feelings" and tries to "avoid kitsch".

The Swede's next project is another movie for Miramax, where he has found a true "vocational home". That it is again the adoption of a novel is "more a coincidence" though. Well-known names in this next one are Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore.

Translated from German by Sabine