The Taste Of Things

Working Valentine's Day so took my wife out tonight instead to see this beautifully filmed Cannes film festival winner The Taste Of Things- which gets instant entry into my fave food films along w/Tampopo, Le Grande Bouffe, Like Water For Chocolate, Babette's Feast and Ratatouille.

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



See it if you can.

On my list. Trailer sucked me in.

While watching I knew I'd read the source material but couldn't place it until now. "The Passionate Epicure" by Marcel Rouff. Great read as well.

I caught up with this lauded food film last weekend. All I can say is that the opening half hour is some of the most lavishly shot cooking sequences I can remember. You basically watch as a handful of folks in a 19th century French kitchen prepare, cook, and eat an indulgent lunch with friends.

I don't know if the overall movie worked for me as well as this opening set piece, but it was truly glorious.

Anyone else catch this one?

We saw The Taste of Things last weekend and enjoyed it enough to see it again. The opening sequence was terrific, as you observed, gastro gnome. Maybe not as breathtaking as the opening of Eat, Drink etc., though.

I thought the movie's sound was especially well-done, enhancing the feeling of being in the room with the cooking, serving, and eating. Clearly, they enhanced it by miking or mixing, but it didn't seem to overwhelm. The crackling of a vol-au-vent being cut was outstanding. I recall an old post of David Hammond's about sounds at Moon's - or was it a radio piece? That post or radio piece gave me a new way of thinking about and appreciating cooking.

The scene I thought was especially well-shot, lighted, and performed was the one where Dodin makes a free-form pastry for the dessert he serves to Eugénie. At least I think it was pastry, not confectionary. It was something I have never seen or read of. Can anyone enlighten me?

I'd like to take notes on the dishes the Prince d'Eurasie's chef recited to impress, if only to look them up!

Perhaps the best thing about the film for me was the very French assumption at the root of it: that the pleasures of eating are simultaneously fundamental and sublime, embedded in our existence with others, and the art of cuisine -- and the cook -- are never to be taken for granted. But of course, in this forum, I state the obvious.

Fwiw, I started a thread w/the same name a couple wks ago.

Jazzfood wrote:Fwiw, I started a thread w/the same name a couple wks ago.

You can ask one of the mods to combine the threads.

Jim-Bob wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:Fwiw, I started a thread w/the same name a couple wks ago.

You can ask one of the mods to combine the threads.

No need. It's done.

Thanks,

=R=
for the Moderators

Really enjoyed this movie. At the time we saw it, I was unaware that Juliet Binoche and the actor who plays Dodin had been a couple in real life with a daughter together. This would be a fact that would have been known to most French audiences or followers or French cinema. I was not aware of this and may have to watch the movie again, as this real-life history certainly would affect the relationship between the characters and the performances. I don't think this is a spoiler - this is background I wish I had known before seeing the movie.

Sorry, somehow I missed another thread was already in the works. Thanks for getting it all sorted.

And Josephine makes a great point about the sound design. There was absolutely great care taken to capture the audio cues and feedback of a working kitchen (in fact, during may of the cooking scenes, there is very little dialogue at all). And, at least for me, this did a great deal to make those portions especially memorable.

I was thinking I knew what what going to happen for the first hr or so then realized I read the source material https://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Epicure-Passion-Dodin-Bouffant-Delectable/dp/0375760806 and will say the book is excellent as well.

Don’t forget:Eat Drink Man Woman
https://youtu.be/1-2QBYKI8LU?si=dOEQjAFGykEmCCTK