156 replies to this topic

[ckbklady]

I have located a list of 50 or so food films, many of which are simply films with the odd really great food scene. Others, however, like Tampopo, comfortably fit into the category of food films. The list can be viewed at:

http://www.londonfoo...~1/Foodfi~1.htm

I have others to add: Mystic Pizza (yucky film, but good pizza), Vatel, Frankie and Johnny, Diner, The Joy Luck Club, Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe (HOW did this not get on the London list?), I Love You To Death, Waiting (see info at www.waitingthemovie.com).

On a related note, (should this be a separate thread?) did anyone get to the Slow Food on Film Festival in Italy last week? Winning films can be viewed at www.slowfood.com.

Do food films make you hungry? Do they drive you to the kitchen? Have you ever shown or been shown one as "dessert" at a dinner party? Have you a favorite food film? (Yes, Hannibal counts!)

[col klink]

"Big Night" with Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci. The way Shalhoub obsessed about his cooking was delightful to watch. I was certainly hungary after watching it.

I was decidedly NOT hungary after watching Delicatessen, though I thoroughly enjoyed it. However I did happen to see this at one of those theaters that serves food and beer. I ordered the hot wings with Dave's Insanity sauce and bucket of beer.

[robert brown]

"La Grande Bouffe" is hard to beat in terms of sheer excess. Don't use "Bouffe" as a verb in polite company, however. It means to eat something very particular.

[Jinmyo]

Tam-popo. Tam-popo. Tam-popo.

The Big Night. I loved the simple breakfast scene at the end.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Also Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet.

[Basildog]

As you know, I'm not one to brag, but i did appear in a German TV Film.Well, my hands did, i was a hand "double" for an actor who had to chop up veggies quickly.Great fun to see how others work and i even got a trip to make up !.I'm ready for my close up now....

[AdamLawrence]

'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.' That's all I'm going to say.

Adam

[Tonyfinch]

I was mesmerised by the cooking scenes in "Eat Drink Man Woman" and came out desparate for a plane to fly me to Hong Kong to eat-so I settled for Fung Shing in Soho instead.

Babette's Feast is an interesting meditation on the unifying power of food but is a little too arty and aesthetic to really work as Food Porn-maybe Food Erotica instead-more intellectual but not half as much fun.

Hitchcock's Frenzy has a running theme whereby the policeman's wife is doing a Cordon Bleu course and is always serving him up "fancy" French food when all he's dreaming of is a plate of Bangers and Mash.

[tony h]

What about Last Tango in Paris?

[Liza]

An old chestnut with a great title, "History Happens at Night" with Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer, has a lovely scene where they pretend that they're already married and she wants to make him dinner. There's also a running theme of Lobster a
l'Americaine. Boyer is a waiter who takes over the management of Victor's Cafe in NY, while searching for Jean Arthur, who has left her nasty husband ...

[Tonyfinch]

What about Last Tango in Paris?

They wouldn't have used butter today. They'd have used Flora

[tony h]

They wouldn't have used butter today. They'd have used Flora

Confession - I've never seen it.  They did screen it a college but I was so fr**in bored that I walked out after 1/2 hour.

[cabrales]

'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.' That's all I'm going to say.

Adam

That's my favorite food film as well, because of the sumptuousness of the colors and the depiction of the repeated visits to the same restaurant.  

[Sandra Levine]

There was an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock tv series in which a woman murdered her husband by bludgeoning him with a frozen leg of lamb and then neatly disposed of the weapon by roasting it and serving it to the investigating detectives.

[Wilfrid]

My number one choice in that category is "Babette's Feast".  If you like old-fashioned, multi-course French dinners - which I do - the film will make you ravenous.  I particularly recall the little quails in their pastry coffins.

Also, the recent film "Chocolat" with Juliette Binoche playing a chocolatier  (or is it chocolatiere?) in a small French town, will get your juices flowing if you like sweet things.

[edemuth]

Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" has an incredible opening scene, part of which lingers over a late 19th-century New York society buffet table that's heaped with food.  Just one of the film's many beautiful production details.

Wilfrid, I agree about "Chocolat"--I was practically desperate for some of that hot chocolate!  The scene where Juliette Binoche gets Judi Dench to try it is wonderfully amusing.

[Sandra Levine]

My number one choice in that category is "Babette's Feast".  

Yes, my first choice, too -- not just for the food, but for the attitude toward it:  an expression of the redeeming power of food, as art and sustenance and therefore, true spirituality contrasted with the spiritual emptiness of the "religious" true believers.  It's one of my favorite movies.

[Malawry]

"The Cook The Thief..." made me hungry in many senses until the very end. My favorite character was the saucier, who didn't speak at all to my memory. I thought he was adorable in his shirtless, barrel-chested way. At the end of the movie there's a group shot in which he wields his ladle with righteous indignation.

This isn't a food-related movie, but my absolute favorite moment in the Red Dwarf series is when Lister orders breakfast from the somewhat faulty vending machine in the hallway. "I'll have a milkshake." "What flavor?" "Beer."

I recently saw Bandits on a cross-country plane flight. I got really annoyed at the uneducated food stuff in there. There's this woman cutting up vegetables for a mirepoix in such an unsafe and ridiculous manner...and then later an idiotic discussion about saffron being the secret to somebody's pasta sauce. Didn't the scriptwriters have a food geek they could ask about this stuff? This annoys me as much as my partner Erin (who is a choral conductor) gets annoyed at watching actors' efforts to "conduct." We're real fun to watch movies with.  

[scout]

How about Like Water for Chocolate?

[Shiva]

9 1/2 Weeks.  :wow:

[yvonne johnson]

Ckbklady, the first site you mention looks like a good one. There’s a good description of Felicia’s Journey, a very scary movie that has lot in it about food. And the site allows you to see a movie clip
http://www.londonfoo...~1/Felici~1.htm

Another good resource is the Internet Movie Database
http://us.imdb.com/Find

And welcome to eGullet, Scout!

[macrosan]

Tom Jones - the scene

[=Mark]

I recently rented Tortilla Soup, in which Ang Lee retells the Eat Drink Man Woman theme with a Hispanic spin.  I think I actually liked this version better.

Am still waiting for Dinner Rush to be released...

[Malawry]

How about Like Water for Chocolate?

Dude. Why didn't I think of that? I've wanted to try to make a rose-petal sauce ever since I saw that movie. The cream fritters sounded amazing too.

Welcome to eGullet.

[cabrales]

For the symbolism that may inhere in a meal taken together (in this case, the discomfort and oppression of multiple wives who feel they have to compete for the affections of a man and who do not really want to dine together) and the unspoken during a meal, "Raise the Red Lantern" by Zhang Yimou. The food scenes in this move are very limited, though.  

http://worldfilm.abo...eredlantern.htm

And, "Shawshank Redemption", one of my favorite films (the food scenes are not the reason I like it; more the theme of perseverence). It contains scenes in which prison politics are played out in the form of bullies' handling of the protagonist's food and the significance of seating arrangements in prison cateens.

[Jinmyo]

"Raise the Red Lantern" by Zhang Yimou. The food scenes in this move are very limited, though.  

Wonderful film.

I actually did make spinach with tofu after watching it.

[Liza]

Has anyone seen "Vatel", featuring Gerard Depardieu as a chef? It's on cable these days.

[jhlurie]

So apparently Martin Scorsese is in discussions with Warner Bros. to direct a new adaption of "Willie Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (whichever they decide to call this new adaption).  Click here for the Internet Rumor mill.

You may now officially start posting jokes, Scorsese-type casting decisions, and Scorsese-like dialog for this movie.  

Deniro (as Wonka):  Do... you... want a chocolate bar?  DO YOU WANT A CHOCOLATE BAR?!?

[robert brown]

I'm telling you, "La Grande Bouffe", circa 1980. Try to rent it. It's about a group of guys who literally kill themselves eating. It's got more food than exists. And ,as I recall, good food. Maybe even the stuff Wilfrid is looking for. Check it out, Checkbook Lady.

[Tonyfinch]

The film "La Grande Bouffe" was known as "Blow-Out" in the Uk and was made in 1973. It was influenced by De Sade's "120 Days of Sodom" and involves 4 guys who meet up in a country house in order to eat themselves to death.

European films in the 60s&70s by left wing film makers,such as Bunuel and Pasolini, often used food as a metaphor for the excessive consumption of the Bourgeoisie, and treated the process of eating and drinking with ironic disgust.The British film "The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover" continue this tradition.

Eastern influenced food films such as "Tampopo" and "Eat Drink Man Woman" stress the unifying and harmonising power of food,as doesthe sweet(in the best sense of the word) film "Big Night".

Food used to be a political issue in films. Is it now?

[ckbklady]

Good films all - thanks everyone.

markstevens, I believe that Dinner Rush has come quietly and gone already to video. A friend saw it on a British Airways flight back in March.

robert brown, sorry, but it's Cookbook Lady, not Checkbook Lady. (Although my husband might disagree.) As a Canadian, I would have to be "cquebklady" to be Chequebook Lady. Besides, I usually pay cash.

My favorite food film is Frankie and Johnny - endless shots of the greasy spoon kitchen never fail to drive me into my own kitchen and dive into a fry-up.