Movies/Films with Food-Related Themes

[Carlovski]

I was watching 'The Ipcress File' again last night. Now Len Deighton who wrote the book and screenplay was a noted gourmet who wrote several cookbooks and had a regular cookery column in the Observer. The food scenes have dated somewhat though, Harry Palmer's cuisine seems to revolve mainly around tinned mushrooms and green peppers - not really two of my favourite ingredients. He does very skillyfully crack some eggs one handed (Apparently after being coached by Len Deighton), and is using a proper sharp chefs knife to slice the peppers though.

[Jaymes]

I find it really interesting and telling that so many movies mentioned in all these "food movie" threads are not actually about food. But from Tom Jones to Frida to all the various Christmas comedies, food plays such an integral part that those are often the scenes we love best and remember longest.

No wonder "breaking bread" is such a powerful symbol for human connectedness.

[joiei]

Food is the common denominator in all these movies, not necessarily the star. I agree with Jaymes, great memories are made around food, and sometimes with food being the star. When my family gets together, it is most often over the dining table.

[Jaymes]

Food is the common denominator in all these movies, not necessarily the star.  I agree with Jaymes,  great memories are made around food,  and sometimes with food being the star.  When my family gets together,  it is most often over the dining table.

←

Ah yes. And also, how many hilarious and even bad memories are made around the family dining table. No wonder it's the star in so many movies, eh?

[Werdna]

I've gotta throw The Grand Chef into the mix here. Netflix has it, I believe there's also a movie Le Grand Chef which is a condensed version. But I'm talking about the 8 DVD Korean TV series (all subtitled).

Man, it was really good. Fun drama, -very- food centric with cooking competitions, backstabbing, and did I mention lots of drama? And more than any fictional work I've ever seen, movie or TV it was -about- the food.

I cooked korean food for a week while we were watching, I've never had so much panchan in my fridge

Edited April 21, 2009 by Werdna (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I'd like to add the 2007 film 'Waitress' to the list. It's a fun little film that features a lot of pies.

[BonVivant]

'flavour of happiness'

[Lisa Shock]

I just watched 'Sweet Bean', あん,  on Netflix. Part of it goes into great detail about the making of the red bean paste used for making dorayaki and other confections. I really enjoyed the film, it's about focus, perfecting dishes, and making real food from scratch -among other things.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I just watched "The Last One" on broadcast PBS, but unfortunately, they aren't offering it for streaming, nor could I find it elsewhere for free. There's a trailer on YouTube, and Amazon is offering it for streaming for 99 cents.

 

It's about an old guy, "Popcorn Sutton" who followed the ways of his forebears and distilled moonshine in the Appalachian mountains in North Carolina, so it's not for everyone. I sure like it though.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I just heard about the tradition in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Austria of showing "Dinner for One" or "Der 90 Guberstag (The 90th Birthday)" as it's known in Germany. It's a 1963 British film, recorded in English, go figure? Anyway, it's an 11 minute short that deals with dinner being served to a 90 year old lady on her birthday by her also elderly butler. He is impersonating her four deceased friends as well as doing dinner and drinks pairing service for the courses. It was so hilarious I was laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes when my slow sense of humor got warmed up a few minutes into the film. I think it will be a new tradition for me for New Years as well. Anyone ever heard of this little film before?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81YmOBP3BQ

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

46 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I just heard about the tradition in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Austria of showing "Dinner for One" or "Der 90 Guberstag (The 90th Birthday)" as it's known in Germany. It's a 1963 British film, recorded in English, go figure? Anyway, it's an 11 minute short that deals with dinner being served to a 90 year old lady on her birthday by her also elderly butler. He is impersonating her four deceased friends as well as doing dinner and drinks pairing service for the courses. It was so hilarious I was laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes when my slow sense of humor got warmed up a few minutes into the film. I think it will be a new tradition for me for New Years as well. Anyone ever heard of this little film before?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81YmOBP3BQ

 

 

I'd totally forgotten that. Saw it a few times many years ago.Thanks for the reminder.

[liuzhou]

"Hell or High Water" can't really be said to be a food movie. It's a bank robber movie with a twist. But a few scenes are set in diners. One in particular had me really laughing out loud.

 

The two anti-heroes visit a diner somewhere in Texas and are served by an aged, unwelcoming crone whose opening line is a  demand to know "What don't you want?"

She eventually but reluctantly goes on to explain that they only really do one dish, but most customers have something in that dish that they don't want.

OK. Doesn't sound that funny, but it is. I don't want to include too many spoilers. I found it hilarious.

(The movie is all over excellent, too!)

 

[blue_dolphin]

There's not a lot about food in these two documentaries but wine is certainly food-related so I figure I can mention them here.  Neither are new but I didn't find a previous mention of them in the movie threads here.  I just watched and enjoyed the wine documentaries "Somm" (2012) and "Somm: Into the Bottle" (2015), both are currently $0.99 rentals on Amazon and iTunes in the US.

 

"Somm" follows four young sommeliers as they study for and take the notoriously difficult Master Sommelier exam.  There's a bit of a reality-TV aspect to it but I found it interesting to see the process and the depth and breadth of wine minutiae the candidates are expected to learn.  I watched this one when it first came out and re-watched it again before watching "Somm:  Into the Bottle" but it's not necessary to watch them in any order.

 

The later film is my favorite of these two.  It consists of 10 chapters, each of which uses a single bottle of wine as an avenue to explore an aspect of wine making or wine culture.  Several of the characters from "Somm" appear here, generally as talking heads adding commentary to one of the stories. This one has its focus on the wine and winemakers rather than the sommeliers.  Several of the chapters are worthy of a full-length documentary of their own, others not so much.   It would be fun to plan a viewing party around "Somm:  Into the Bottle," serving a relevant wine (not likely the very rare and extremely expensive  vintages featured) to sip during the chapters and pausing for tasting discussion between the chapters. 

 

Edited to add:  detailed review and chapter breakdown of "Somm:  Into the Bottle" over at this link on Wine Folly

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

[liuzhou]

Warning. There are supposed links to the two Somm movies on You Tube.  None of the them go to the movies in question. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I enjoyed the movie "Canela" 2012 on one of our Spanish language locally broadcast channels tonight. There are many scenes with lovely ingredients, food prep and meals being served, so you may enjoy it, if you can find it. I did, and my Spanish isn't good enough to keep up with all the dialogue. I tried to find it with subtitles, but failed. If anyone runs across it with English translation, please share it with us.

[blue_dolphin]

On 5/6/2009 at 8:28 AM, Lisa Shock said:

I'd like to add the 2007 film 'Waitress' to the list. It's a fun little film that features a lot of pies.

 

I'm going to see the traveling edition of the Broadway musical based on "Waitress" so I watched the movie last night.  I really wished I could have sampled a few of those pies, too!

[chromedome]

Loved all the names of the pies.

[Lisa Shock]

Just saw Food On The Go on Netflix and enjoyed it. It's a documentary about Italian food and how it's changing in the Americas as Italian immigrants adapt to life in the New World -primarily focusing on Argentina and New York. There's a great deal of commentary about pizza. I enjoyed it, but I wish it were a series, not just a one-off. As a vegetarian, I really enjoyed seeing the parts about vegetables and how Italians brought greengrocer stands to New York.

[kayb]

24 minutes ago, Lisa Shock said:

Just saw Food On The Go on Netflix and enjoyed it. It's a documentary about Italian food and how it's changing in the Americas as Italian immigrants adapt to life in the New World -primarily focusing on Argentina and New York. There's a great deal of commentary about pizza. I enjoyed it, but I wish it were a series, not just a one-off. As a vegetarian, I really enjoyed seeing the parts about vegetables and how Italians brought greengrocer stands to New York.

 

Did it mention tamales, particularly Delta tamales? Their origin, as 100 years ago, the Latino population in the Delta was minimal, is shrouded in mystery, and they taste different from TexMex tamales, but Lord, I love 'em. They're first noted as a portable lunch for sharecroppers.

[Lisa Shock]

24 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

Did it mention tamales, particularly Delta tamales? Their origin, as 100 years ago, the Latino population in the Delta was minimal, is shrouded in mystery, and they taste different from TexMex tamales, but Lord, I love 'em. They're first noted as a portable lunch for sharecroppers.

No, sorry, it did not go into that much detail. It was really just about Italians. How, because unification was so recent, there is no national cuisine in Italy, it's a group of regional cuisines. And, how Italians in Italy eat a lot of vegetables and herbs but once (mostly poor) immigrants from Italy got to the new world, they found that meat was super-cheap and they started altering their recipes to include lots of it.  So, simple spaghetti dishes which were originally vegetarian suddenly have a ground beef base and meatballs on top if you eat in an Italian descendant's home in New York. Or in Argentina, the dish will have a fried meat (beef or pork) cutlet on top which is then drowned in lots of meat sauce and smothered in a ridiculous amount of cheese.

 

[blue_dolphin]

It seemed to me that food was woven into almost every scene in Crazy Rich Asians - from the famous Singapore hawker centre to lavish banquet spreads to homemade dumplings and even the homemade meals that Rachel's mother packed for her to take on the plane.   I went to the movie after having dinner with friends and we were all starving afterwards!

There's a video clip of some of the night market scenes here and an article on the Bon Appetit website here: Dumplings, Kaya Toast, and Chili Crab: Inside the Food of Crazy Rich Asians