156 replies to this topic

[scase805]

Not sure if this message board is still active, but there are some great food scenes in the film "Defending Your Life" (which coincidentally is one of my favorite movies!). Pretty funny stuff - basically revolves around the food in the afterlife - everything tastes great, and has no negative effects (fat, cholesterol, etc.). Oh, and you gotta love Albert Brooks dryness to really appreciate this film!

Anyone else seen this movie???

[Kevin72]

Anyone else seen this movie???

Yes, it's one of my favorites.

All three Godfather movies have great food scenes in them, as does Goodfellas. In fact I credit my interest in Italian cooking to Godfather I and Big Night.

Incidentally I saw a preview for Willy Wonka last night . . . it looks . . . interesting.

[Shannon_Elise]

I love Babette's Feast, I had to watch it in a college french class and was mesmerized. I think that sealed my interest in working in the food industry some day. It was an artform in that film.

I also adore Chocolat. I'm with KatieLoeb, Johnny Depp with an accent is like gilding the lily. I am also a sucker for accents.

My mother saw a preview for the new "Willy Wonka" with Mr. Depp and she also said it looked interesting. I think I might have to go see "Lemony Snicket" just so I can see the preview for "Willy Wonka", which is one of my favorite all time movies. Period.

I must admit an affection for a newer foodie type film, although it leans more towards the wannabe wine geek in me, Sideways. Not the best movie I have ever seen, but just so genuine and beautifully acted.

Shannon

[chow guy]

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.

Ditto! I love these films.

My favorite scene in Big Night is also the awesome breakfast scene. So glad to hear someone apprecites it as much as I do.

[chow guy]

I forgot about another film that I really love. It's called "Bread and Chocolate" and it was shot at Le Beau Rivage in Lucerne. There is a scene with the waiter trying to peel an orange with madame watching... it's priceless.

[Mabelline]

Although not a film, as such, the PBS classic, I Claudius, is poignant to me when Nero and his mother poison Claudius (Old King Log) and he eats the mushrooms willingly, while knowin' full well they are deadly.

[zilla369]

Just last week caught "Le Divorce" with Kate Hudson on cable. The film is set in Paris, and there are many, many beautiful plates prominently featured, as much of the action takes place in upscale restaurants. Not just food happening to be in a scene, but deliberate, overhead shots of the plates.

Also, "Woman on Top", starring Selma Hayek as a Brazilian chef that comes to New York and gets her own cooking show. Fluffy little movie, but great food scenes.

[viva]

Woman on Top was actually Penelope Cruz, but still a great food flick! Made me want to swim directly to Bahia for some spicy shrimp. Also loved the coffee maker that was used... sort of a cloth bag contraption. Anyone know what that was?

[Carolyn Tillie]

The musical Gigi was on Turner Classic Movies the other day. There is a great scene where Gaston opens the lid of a pot and smells inside, saying that it smells good. "Just a pork cassoulet..." Mamita Alvarez explains, "It was impossible to get any goose this week." She adds wistfully. Gaston promises to send up a brace from the country.

Later, while Gigi and Gaston are playing cards, Gigi asks what he is having for dinner that night. (This is all preceeding the Night They Invented Champagne song). Gaston answer the question, "Oh, the usual.... filet of sole with muscles, for a change. And filet of lamb with truffles. But it can't compare with your Grandmother's cassoulet!"

All-in-all, one of my favorite scenes, but the entire movie is studded with foodie bits (Uncle Honore offering him some cheese, the entire Champagne song, teaching Gigi to eat ortolons, etc.)

[Squeat Mungry]

All of comic genius Jacques Tati's classic Hulot films have extremely funny bits involving food, cooking and restaurants, from the hyper-modern home kitchen in Mon Oncle, to the ka-thunking restaurant door in M. Hulot's Holiday, to the built-in barbecue in the prototype car in Traffic. But the height of Tati's talent for good-hearted wry commentary is expressed in the second half of the brilliant Playtime, which builds to its hysterical climax of a restaurant's most disastrous and hilarious opening night.

As Suzanne_F notes, those in New York can see a newly-restored 70mm print of Playtime at the Walter Reade Theater through January 5. I caught this print when it was here in San Francisco at the Castro this summer. It's truly amazing. Don't miss it if you can.

(I also love many of the films mentioned above, including Tampopo, Big Night and Mostly Martha.)

Cheers,

Squeat

[phaelon56]

Also loved the coffee maker that was used... sort of a cloth bag contraption. Anyone know what that was?

I'm familiar with this little device from Puerto Rican culture but it's a traditional way of making coffee in many Hispanic and Caribbean cultures and yields a great brew.

It's called a Chorreador de Café in Costa Rica and here are instructions for How to brew a Great Cup of Costa Rican Coffee

[viva]

Thanks Owen! I feel a bit like Gollum... "me wants it."

[sladeums]

Pieces of April

This was an enjoyable little movie.
Synopsis paraphrased from IMDB:

"...April Burns invites her family to her first attempt at cooking a Thanksgiving dinner at her teeny apartment on New York's Lower East Side. As her family makes their way to the city from suburban Pennsylvania, April must endure a comedy of errors - like finding out her oven doesn't work - in order to pull off the big event..."

[bloviatrix]

The musical Gigi was on Turner Classic Movies the other day. There is a great scene where Gaston opens the lid of a pot and smells inside, saying that it smells good. "Just a pork cassoulet..." Mamita Alvarez explains, "It was impossible to get any goose this week." She adds wistfully. Gaston promises to send up a brace from the country.

Later, while Gigi and Gaston are playing cards, Gigi asks what he is having for dinner that night. (This is all preceeding the Night They Invented Champagne song). Gaston answer the question, "Oh, the usual.... filet of sole with muscles, for a change. And filet of lamb with truffles. But it can't compare with your Grandmother's cassoulet!"

All-in-all, one of my favorite scenes, but the entire movie is studded with foodie bits (Uncle Honore offering him some cheese, the entire Champagne song, teaching Gigi to eat ortolons, etc.)

Hey, I watched that too!

[chromedome]

All-in-all, one of my favorite scenes, but the entire movie is studded with foodie bits (Uncle Honore offering him some cheese, the entire Champagne song, teaching Gigi to eat ortolons, etc.)

The ortolans are my favourite part. The look on her face as the little bones crunch between her teeth is just priceless, largely I'm sure because that's how my face would look.

I'm somewhat surprised that no-one's mentioned Fried Green Tomatoes yet. Besides the eponymous house special at the Whistlestop Cafe, we also have the honey-gathering and that, uh..."special" batch of ribs...

[wkl]

I really enjoyed Mostly Martha.
Classic line near the end when Martha's (the chef) therapist (?) makes her a cake from a recipie she gave him.She takes one bite and asks if he used a certain type of flour.He replies that she can't possibly tell what type of flour he used, and she says "True.But I can tell what type of flour you DIDN"T use!"

[phaelon56]

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.

You are joking right? Along with Apocalypse Now, Last Tango has to be one of the most brilliant movies of all time. That said.... the character development is slow and the really interesting stuff doesn't come in until about 70 - 90 minutes into the film. But it's still brilliant. And the score by Gabor Szabo still haunts me every time I hear it.

Food: After watching the "Can he eat 50 hard boiled eggs in one hour?" scene in Cool Hand Luke many times, I have never once had the desire to eat anything afterwards, especially eggs. I also lacked any interest in having dinner with Andre after viewing My Dinner With Andre.

[Fresser]

"Diner" was a favorite of mine--especially the scene where one character eats every dish served on the left side of the menu.

I won't even mention Popcorn Suprise...

[LoveToEatATL]

I love Like Water For Chocolate
Adore Big Night

Nobody mentioned The Big Chill there are a ton of cooking and eating scenes in it.

[petite tête de chou]

Napoleon Dynamite. Good lord, Im going nuts with this flick!
Steak, milk, egg salad sandwiches, a funky '50's casserole, ham, tater tots...
Please, someone say that they have seen this film and allow me to expell this obsession!

-wimper- Im afflicted...

Edited by petite tête de chou, 14 January 2005 - 06:35 PM.

[hazardnc]

Napoleon Dynamite. Good lord, Im going nuts with this flick!
Steak, milk, egg salad sandwiches, a funky '50's casserole, ham, tater tots...
Please, someone say that they have seen this film and allow me to expell this obsession!

-wimper- Im afflicted...

Are you kidding - my kids walk around wearing their "vote for Pedro" t-shirts and asking for "ques-a-dill-as." Yes - others loved this film, too.

Favorite foodie films: Like Water for Chocolate, Chocolate, The Big Night. Also loved Notting Hill (remember the chef-friend who's restaurant failed and the dinner party?)

How about the food scenes from Nine 1/2 Weeks with Kim Bassinger and Mickey Rourke?

[halloweencat]

 Whilst we're talking James M Cain, how about the "recipe" for iguana in "Serenade". You have to put them in a pot of boiling water alive so they purge their bowls . The bones make great soup according to Cain.

i'm confused... is some real person actually advocating putting a live iguana in boiling water? or was this just a character in a movie?


cheers --

hc

[JasonZ]

The DVD of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman includes an interview with the director, who is a "stay at home" dad and loves to cook for his family. He was intimately and technically involved in setting up the cooking scenes from his own experience. There were 8 kitchens used to make the scene in which the hero is called back to his hotel for a food "emergency" -- review the scene and see if you can see the merges (I can't). Anyway, my favorite food film, by a country mile.

JasonZ

[SBonner]

Mostly Martha from Germany is a great food flick.

Cheers,

Stephen
Vancouver, Canada

[Andrew Morrison]

anyone remember the linguine incident with david bowie?

also, that breakfast spot in david lynch's twin peaks that agent cooper frequented (you know, with the coffee).



andrew

[petite tête de chou]

anyone remember the linguine incident with david bowie?

also, that breakfast spot in david lynch's twin peaks that agent cooper frequented (you know, with the coffee).



andrew

Dont recall the Bowie incident. Enlighten me?

Twin Peaks. I might be familiar with it.

[BonfireCuisine]

Big Night, Dinner Rush, Tortilla Soup, Eat this New York - the list goes on but what about "Once upon a time in Mexico?", ok not a true food movie but I've made the dish thats in it a few times and its pretty good.

Jason

[BonfireCuisine]

oh almost forgot - Sideways, not a total food movie but more about wine. But still one I'm planning on getting. - J

[IML]

I think a distinction should be made between films truly about food -- Tampopo being damned near the best, in my opinion -- and films that feature food as a backdrop, like most of those listed (my favorite being Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, which is Lee's best film to date).

[Culinista]

Does anyone know the title of a Korean language film about two women who live next door to each other? My memory is fuzzy, but I recall a good deal of cooking, and one I think ends up killing and eating the other. The title on the English VHS version was two sequential 3-digit room numbers, separated by a slash (371/372, or something like that).

I once offered to cook a "Big Night" timpano dinner for a charity auction. 8 guests paid over $200 each to come, but it turns out that none of them had heard of "Big Night" or understood what the dinner would involve. They must have been very confused by the "Meet Louis Prima" invitations. Fortunately, I planned to screen the movie while serving the antipasti, so by dinnertime, they got it.