Food Movies: The Topic

[inventolux]

OK since we are really diggin deep for some movies here I gotta go with Stand By Me and the pie eating contest.

[jamiemaw]

1. Ho Mangiato il Hairpiece di Stanley Tucci?; Italy, 2001.

2. Caligula (Producer's Cut); USA, 1979.

3. Wie Wasser für Chai; Holland/Germany, 2004.

4. Eating Raoul; USA, 1982.

5. Das Große Komischary; Germany, 1943.

6. Claire's Knee, Eric Rohmner; France, 1971.

7. La Grande Pouffe; France, 1973.

8. Eating Out Abroad; England, 1989.

9. Более Быстрый Pussycat, Убийство, Убийство!; USSR, 1953.

10: PBS/Nova: The Making of Dixon's Cider; USA, 2001.

Honourable Mention: Mea Gulpa; National Film Board of Canada, 1989.

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I'm curious, was " The making of Dixon Cider" about the apple orchard north of Santa Fe?

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I think jamiemaw is toying with us. "Eating Out Abroad" and "The Making of Dixon's Cider" in particular sound suspiciously ribald. see post#64.

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I can only be candid in my silence.

[gwilson]

Has anyone ever seen " The Green Butchers" ?

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I saw that when it played here in Atlanta. I really liked it. I don't want to give away anything, but the cannabalism is actually a minor point. It's basically just a plot device. I thought the movie explored the relationship between the two friends (and girlfriends, etc.) very well. That's really what the movie is about. And some parts of it were really quite funny.

-Greg

[mike_r]

this is kinda reachin but in XXX (the vin diesel flick) there's a scene where he's in a restaurant with a girl, having some kind of mindless talk, and in the background you see a fleet of waiters carry 8 or 10 dome-covered plates to a table of 8 or 10 ppl, set them down as one, then remove the lids with a flourish, also as one. i thought that was pretty cool. the rest of the movie is awful though.

[scordelia]

Not a movie, but I recall an episode of Upstairs Downstairs where the Prince of Wales visited Eaton Place; much of the action centered on Mrs. Bridge's preparations for a rather involved and sumptuous dinner.

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There actually is an Upstairs Downstairs cookbook (o/p): Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs Downstairs Cookery Book.

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It's a good cookbook. I have a copy. Upstairs Downstairs is full of cooking scenes throughout the series. There are two family weddings, numerous parties, family meals and endless staff meals. Angela Baddeley who played Mrs. Bridges came from a cooking family. Her mother was the Duke of Marlborough's chef. She used her mother's receipt book to create menus that would be authentic for the time period. She also insisted on having her kitchen set be a working kitchen and insisted on preparing all the dishes that were needed for the scenes. Angela also supplied many of her own props of pots, pans, knives, etc from the cooking equipment she had from her mother.

[Gigi4808]

First let me say I am sorry for resurrecting a long dead thread but I can't believe that no one mentioned "The Godfather"!. I know there was some sort of mafia story line in there amoungest the food- but damn!.

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli"

Another one scene mention would have to be the dinner scene in "Going My Way" where Bing Crosby is having turkey for dinner- sends me into a turkey fit every time.

Also vaguely food related "Home For The Holidays"- admit it you can see your family in that movie too.

My last scene would have to be from "A Christmas Story" after the Bumpas's dogs have killed the family's Christmas dinner Ralphie and the family end up at their local Chinese place for a dinner that includeds duck- served with the head still on and the Chinese waiters "singing" carols to them "Ra ra ra ra rah, rah ra ra rah..."

[docbrite]

Anybody seen I Like Killing Flies, about the legendary Greenwich Village restaurant Shopsin's? I liked it better than any of the fictional movies listed (though I am fond of Big Night and The Cook, the Thief ...). I don't think it has been widely released, but it is shown at food and film festivals every once in a while.

[Mallet]

I finally rented "The Green Butchers". Freakin' hilarious! Highly recommended. Next on the list: "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman", I've only seen the end on TV .

[rich]

1951 - Superman vs. the Mole Men, starring George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. The best scene occurs when the mole men touch some oranges and then it's discovered they glow. Everyone but Clark Kent/Superman thought it was because the mole people were radioactive - they weren't.

Truly one of the great food scenes in all moviedom. It shows how food can be the vehicle for hatred and discrimination, but the big guy from Krypton put us on the correct path. No other movie food scene has ever been so poignant and deep.

[FistFullaRoux]

Memorable food scenes:

Cool Hand Luke - "Sounds like a ripe watermelon..."

Blues Brothers - "Got my Cheese Whiz boy?" "Come on guys, the f-ing soup is twenty dollars..." "Four whole fried chickens and a Coke"

Animal House - "I'm a zit. Get it?"

Caddyshack - "This steak still has marks from where the jockey was hitting it." "It's not so bad..."

[Bobby 2 Shakes]

Soul Food

Oliver - Please sir, I want more. Moooooore !?!

Ping Pong (1986)

Bronx Tale (doesn't that Frankie Coffeecake make you hungry?)

[markabauman]

How about the feasting scene in the 1963 Tom Jones with Albert Finney.

[H. du Bois]

All right, I'll bite.

Since my favorite food films have already been mentioned, I offer an obscure one: Motel Hell (1980), a horror film starring Rory Calhoun as a sausage-making tycoon a la Jimmy Dean.

It's what he uses (or shall I say, who?) that makes his sausages so special. His motto?

"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters."

[FistFullaRoux]

All right, I'll bite.

Since my favorite food films have already been mentioned, I offer an obscure one:  Motel Hell (1980), a horror film starring Rory Calhoun as a sausage-making tycoon a la Jimmy Dean. 

It's what he uses (or shall I say, who?) that makes his sausages so special.  His motto?

"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters."

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I can't believe anyone else even saw that movie...

[Grub]

Okay, well -- there's a scene in From Dusk Till Dawn where Salma Hayek pours booze down her leg, and some lucky dude laps it up as it comes off her toes... Of course, she turns into an angry, violent vampire the next minute, and starts killing everyone, but heh, I still consider the guy a very lucky dude indeed.

And of course, there's Titus -- where Hopkins found his Hannibal, and Chiron & Demetrius ends up in a pasty ...Hark, villains, I will grind your bones to dust...

[H. du Bois]

All right, I'll bite.

Since my favorite food films have already been mentioned, I offer an obscure one:  Motel Hell (1980), a horror film starring Rory Calhoun as a sausage-making tycoon a la Jimmy Dean. 

It's what he uses (or shall I say, who?) that makes his sausages so special.  His motto?

"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters."

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I can't believe anyone else even saw that movie...

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Did you?

[gini]

A restaurant here in Boston is recreating Big Night's dinner from timpano to whole roasted pig. We're dressing in fifties-style evening wear and are really looking forward to it.

While murder rather than dinner-centric, I find the food references in Clue adorable: "And monkey brains, although a popular Cantonese cuisine, is not often found in Washington D.C."

[kpurvis]

Food isn't this movie's main focus, but food and food places (restaurants, kitchens) seem to be a major factor in Moonstruck.  Think of it-- the different scenes in the restaurant with Loretta and Rose, in Ronnie's kitchen when Loretta cooks a steak for him (and we know how THAT ended up!!), and the entire final segment in that WONDERFUL huge kitchen with the whole family there!  That to me really demonstrates the heart of the family.  I just looove that movie....

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The moment in the kitchen with Rose flips the bread with the egg and the red peppers in the skillet, and she barely turns around and yells at the grandfather and the dogs: "Upstairs. Everybody upstairs."

That movie SMELLED good.

[Milagai]

A pretty funny offbeat movie was Parents (wannabe vegetarian

kid with parents who insist on serving hunks of meat,

and the undertone is they are cannibals etc.)

They keep eating what mom calls "leftovers",

which seem to go on and on, and kid wonders

what they were before being leftovers....

Milagai

[hhlodesign]

The scene in Goodfellas where they slice the garlic paper thin with a razor blade and it melts in the pan. Brilliant!

[FistFullaRoux]

All right, I'll bite.

Since my favorite food films have already been mentioned, I offer an obscure one:  Motel Hell (1980), a horror film starring Rory Calhoun as a sausage-making tycoon a la Jimmy Dean. 

It's what he uses (or shall I say, who?) that makes his sausages so special.  His motto?

"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters."

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I can't believe anyone else even saw that movie...

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Did you?

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Yeah, I did. The harvesting scene ruined me for a while. It even kept me away from sausage for several weeks. Not even Babe did that...

[MissAmy]

The scene in Goodfellas where they slice the garlic paper thin with a razor blade and it melts in the pan. Brilliant!

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Oh yeah! That's one of my favorite scenes in any movie, ever. I tried it once with some friends in college. I think we had the oil too hot, though, 'cause it just burned.

[amapola]

Ok, I know this thread has been dead as a doornail for over six months now but I just couldn't resist...

Big Night is very high on my list. Of course for all the obvious reasons, but in fact mainly because of the scene of the morning after, when all the extravagant cooking and eating has been done and the men wake up and stumble into the kitchen one after the other, to share the simple satisfaction provided by an omelette.

Also, I love The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Fried Green Tomatoes, although often mentioned up thread.

And then three slightly far-fetched ones:

Mermaids, in which Cher prepares only food items featured in her finger food book, down to the marshmallow skewers for desert.

In The Hours three stories run alongside and each features some memorable food scenes. In the part with Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in the 1920's, she sends her cook to London by train to fetch ginger for the afternoon tea party, but REALLY because she is scared to be alone around the house with the servants.

In the 1950's storyline is a scene were we see how a deeply depressed Julianne Moore wants to make her husband a brown-and-blue birthday cake. She fails at her first attempt so she makes a second, perfect one, leaves it on the counter and drives off to a hotel to kill herself (which she then doesn't do after all).

And then in the 2000's setting, Meryl Streep prepares a party for her writer friend who has AIDS and has won a writers award. From early morning on she has been busy preparing 'that crab-thing you like so much', starting off with her girlfriend discovering a dozen of live crabs in the sink, but then her friend throws himself out of the window and the party is -of course- cancelled. The sound of the 'crab-thing' as she slides it off the plate into the bin is, to me, immortal.

Amadeus features a gorgeous banquet that serves as the background for the introduction of Mozart and his wife, with dishes dressed with pheasant feathers and a huge bombe-type contraption covered in what appear to be chocolate truffles.

But perhaps my most favourite food scene of them all has to be the one where Mozart’s wife comes to Salieri to seek his help and to make her feel at ease he offers her 'some refreshments' in the form of Capezzoli di Venere- brandied chestnuts coated with marzipan, or, originally, chocolate. Her face, his, the innuendo, everyting they DON'T say, and all of that over a pretty little dish of innocent looking sweets... I have never tried to recreate those but I think I will have to, one day...

[PaniniGuy]

Since my favorite food films have already been mentioned, I offer an obscure one:  Motel Hell (1980), a horror film starring Rory Calhoun as a sausage-making tycoon a la Jimmy Dean.  It's what he uses (or shall I say, who?) that makes his sausages so special.  His motto?  "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters."

"I'm a fraud. I used preservatives."

Other memorable food scenes in movies not about food:

-Clark Griswold eating a damp sandwich.

-Mike Meyers behind the meat counter with Nancy Travis

-Harold and Kumar finally getting to enjoy some sliders

and of course, Cagney making a point with a grapefruit.

[gfron1]

Since this thread is fighting for a comeback

Big Eden: I have long wanted to throw a Thanksgiving party that times each course with the this movie.

Delicatessen: If you don't know anything about it, I won't ruin it, but the best line is, "they even eat money."