Movies/Films with Food-Related Themes

[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.

[wingding]

A very small food moment,in my all time favorite film,'La Strada',is when Zampano[Anthony Quinn] and a peasant woman are standing up and scarfing down bowls of rigatoni at a wedding that they are both working at.She's bragging about how she can work like a horse,and they seduce each other in a rough,gruff kind of way...

[ckbklady]

Another new cinematic offering this week comes to us via Pay Per View on Canadian cable TV (stop snickering, everyone - we DO have television in The Great White North. We use reindeer's antler for TV antennae - why do you folks use rabbits??).  As I was surfing the preview channel for a glimpse of yummy Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, I came across a preview for a film called simply RESTAURANT. It seems food-rich and plot-thin. Roughly, it appears to be your typical "hardworking waiter makes good and gets girl" film. The only "star" in the film is Elise Neal from the sitcom The Hughleys. It may be super, it may be awful, but I can report that of the 4-minute preview, every shot was set in a busy restaurant kitchen with marvy closeups of frypans and salamanders. If I can bear to plunk down my $4.99 I'll view it and report back, but it won't win a film face-off with Lagaan, Story of India (4 hours of cricket and Indian pop music - heaven.) so they'd better not be on at the same time.

[tommy]

restaurant was filmed in my hometown of Hoboken NJ (if you think people make fun of canada, you should see what kind of fun they have with hoboken!!).  it was written by a guy (or 2) from jersey city, which is the next town over.  the restaurant you see in the movie was a real restaurant/bar, although it was totally remodeled for the film.  this restaurant was also featured in the blockbuster bruce willis film "hudson hawk".  i don't think the kitchen scenes were filmed here though.

restaurant is a pretty good movie actually.

[ckbklady]

Thanks, Tommy - I'll risk my $5 then.

The film was made in Hoboken? How I like Hoboken! I bought an astonishingly underpriced copy of Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery In All Its Branches at Hoboken Books on Washington Street in 1990. If I recall, I also had a sensational Cioppino at a bar/bistro down the street shortly thereafter.

[tommy]

ckbklady,

sadly, hoboken books (i think), and just about all other cool remnants of hoboken are long gone. :(

but yes, the restaurant was at the corner of 14th and washington, which is uptown.  back in 1990, it *might* have been called Madison Sports Bistro.  although, 1990 might have been a tad before that.

[ckbklady]

Alas, Tommy, that is indeed sad. I will pretend that the restaurant in RESTAURANT was the one in which I had the Cioppino, I will hug my Acton close and I will dream of better days.

[franklanguage]

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

Ditto.

[Liza]

In the hard-to-believe division, there's Richard Gere as a  restaurant owner in "Autumn in New York".

I'm shocked and stunned by the Scorcese rumor, mostly because a remake seems like the last thing he would do. But he does have young kids, so maybe it's a more personal thing.

As usual, there's no reason to do a remake, and nothing will take the place of the original. Right?

[Andy Lynes]

I'm shocked and stunned by the Scorcese rumor, mostly because a remake seems like the last thing he would do.

Um.....Cape Fear?

[Andy Lynes]

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.

Hold on a minute - thats my post!

I cooked soup noodle the next day after seeing Tampopo. That film always makes me hungry

How about Mildred Pierce and her chicken restaurant?  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.

[ckbklady]

Ahh, Andy Lynes reminds me of a wonderful example where I have seen life imitate art. When I lived in Toronto, my husband and I used to frequent a restaurant by the name of Mildred Pierce. It was a dark and funky room in half of a small warehouse in a deliciously gloomy, Cain-ish part of the city. The owners were inspired by the book and film to open it. It was fun at the time - very 90s, very Toronto (everything-as-a-Napoleon, sauce painting and cocoa dust, yada yada). I was a little disappointed at first that it was not more greasy-spoonish and shadier but was much consoled when there took place a rare and unexplained shooting in the area (injured fella wouldn't talk - Cain would have been proud.).

I have heard of a new film but have not seen or heard enough to determine if it qualifies as a food film - Rare Birds stars wooden William Hurt as a restauranteur who spreads a rumour about the sighting of a rare bird near his restaurant in the hope of saving his flagging business. Has anyone seen it? Do they actually make him COOK???

Mr. Lynes, the idea of iguanas purging their bowls is a trifle hard to imagine. Perhaps you meant to say BOWELS? I suppose you did - how icky. Does one then have to "skim" the cooking liquid? Cringe, cringe.....

[cabrales]

There are tiny food-related scenes in the film "In The Mood for Love", by Wong Kar-Wai.  The protagonist couple, who live in the partitioned, sublet apartment and whose respective spouses are having an affair, run into each other from time to time while heading out to buy noodles for their own consumption. These scenes are typically at the end of the day, in limited light, and the female protagonist is usually in one of her silk cheong-sam dresses with luscious fabrics and patterns. Some scenes occur in a cafe. This is not one of my preferred films, but it has impressive cinematography.

http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_review.../02/021603.html

("Still dressed for the office, she dashes out to a crowded alley to buy noodles. Sometimes they meet on the grotty staircase. Often it is raining. Sometimes they simply talk on the sidewalk.")

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_St....00.html

("In the Mood for Love is a movie perfumed not merely by the noodles and dumplings that feature so prominently, but by the smell of clothes drying out after being caught in the rain.")

http://www.inthemoodforlove-wkw.com/

(the protagonists)

[heyjude]

This is Heyjude not Ckbklady altho' our icons make us look like fraternal twins and we are friends. The Contender,an otherwise seriously flawed film, had some wonderful scenes in which Jeff Bridges as The President orders from the White House kitchen. Don't forget the liver scene in Rosemary's Baby, the diner scene in Five Easy Pieces or Michael Keaton wrapping leftovers in Multiplicity. My all time favorite is Prick Up Your Ears in which Vanessa Redgrave says to the sister of Joe Orton who frets when she loses count as she is combining his ashes with those of his lover, "It's a gesture,Dear,not a recipe." Worthy of an Oprah philosopher.

[LaurieA-B]

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.

Actually, it's Taipei, Taiwan.  (Ang Lee is Taiwanese.)  When I was in Taipei very briefly last fall, I didn't eat any food as fabulous as that in the movie, but it's there somewhere.  I saw a hotel that looked like the one in the movie (where the restaurant is located).

Another Taipei-filmed movie, Yi Yi, is not about food but has a funny scene involving McDonald's.

Eat Drink Man Woman has been a favorite for a while.  Tortilla Soup is not as brilliant, but very enjoyable.  My favorite part of EDMW is the lunches he makes for the little girl to take to school. They're the sort of lunches your fairy godmother would give you.

[Andy Lynes]

Mr. Lynes, the idea of iguanas purging their bowls is a trifle hard to imagine. Perhaps you meant to say BOWELS? I suppose you did - how icky. Does one then have to "skim" the cooking liquid? Cringe, cringe.....

Bowels of course - you change the cooking water after and I guess you would skim it. Cain wrote a cookery book as well, out of print though I think.

[tony h]

What about the vomit man in the Monty Python film - sorry - I don't remember its name?  That was pretty disgusting & possibly more suitable for the A Balic thread.

PS - I used to live in Hoboken

[tommy]

PS - I used to live in Hoboken

then why don't you talk about some of your hoboken/nj dining experiences!!??

[tony h]

PS - I used to live in Hoboken

then why don't you talk about some of your hoboken/nj dining experiences!!??

nothin' worth rememberin'

[tommy]

nothin' worth rememberin'

take this over to the nj board and watch us slap that attitude right outta ya!  

[=Mark]

What about the vomit man in the Monty Python film

It's just a thin little mint, Mr. Creosote.  Shouldn't be a bother at all!   :wow: