Food
Related: cannibalism - hunger - need
Food films: La Grande Bouffe (1973) - Le Fantôme de la liberté - (1974) - Tampopo (1985) - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Le Fantôme de la liberté - (1974) Luis Buñuel [Amazon.com]
Bourgeois couples discuss defecation around a toilet-lined table but consider "food" a taboo. They excuse themselves to eat food in private.
Sushi
You are what you eat
"You are what you eat" is a quote attributed to Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Feuerbach [Jan 2006]Food films: a political issue
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? --Tony Finch in --http://forums.egullet.com/show.php/act/ST/f/2/t/6010
List of films involving food
This is a partial list of films in which food is a major theme.
- Babette's Feast
- Big Night
- Chocolat
- The Coca-Cola Kid
- Coffee and Cigarettes
- Defending Your Life
- Eat Drink Man Woman
- Eating (1990)
- Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
- Like Water for Chocolate
- The Meaning of Life
- Mr. Majestyk
- Super Size Me
- Tampopo
- Tortilla Soup
- Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
There are also films involving cannibalism:
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_involving_food [Mar 2005]
- Alive: The Miracle of the Andes
- The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
- Delicatessen
- Ravenous
- Soylent Green
More food films
- Chocolat (2000) - Lasse Hallström [Amazon.com]
With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.
Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon for amazon.com
[Classic food film, plays in a stylized version of France, breathes the same atmosphere of Amelie Poulain, but I prefer this one.]- Babette's Feast (1987) - Gabriel Axel [Amazon.com]
In 19th century Denmark, two adult sisters live in an isolated village with their father, who is the honored pastor of a small Protestant church that is almost a sect unto itself. Although they each are presented with a real opportunity to leave the village, the sisters choose to stay with their father, to serve to him and their church. After some years, a French woman refugee, Babette, arrives at their door, begs them to take her in, and commits herself to work for them as maid/housekeeper/cook. Sometime after their father dies, the sisters decide to hold a dinner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Babette experiences unexpected good fortune and implores the sisters to allow her to take charge of the preparation of the meal. Although they are secretly concerned about what Babette, a Catholic and a foreigner, might do, the sisters allow her to go ahead. Babette then prepares the feast of a lifetime for the members of the tiny church and an important gentleman related to one of them. --Ed Cannon for imdb.com