Worth: $15.50
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Cast:
Benoît Magimel, Juliette Binoche, Galatéa Bellugi, Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire
Intro:
A genuine delight for the senses, director Tran Anh Hung delivers a sumptuous love story spanning 20 years, a sweet and heartfelt romance that provides the backdrop for an elegant celebration of food.
A genuine delight for the senses, director Tran Anh Hung (Norwegian Wood, Cyclo, The Scent of Green Papaya) delivers a sumptuous love story spanning 20 years, a sweet and heartfelt romance that provides the backdrop for an elegant celebration of food.
With a deliberately slow-moving pace, Hung invites audiences to savour each scene as it unfolds. Cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg has the precise eye of an artist, and the result of their collaboration is an exquisitely shot film you could pause on any frame, and it would resemble a painting.
The story follows famed epicure Dodin (Benoît Magimel), a gourmand with a tremendous passion both for fine dining and for his revered cook of 20 years, Eugenie (Juliette Binoche). Their romance is as unhurried as the pace of the film itself, Eugenie rebuffing Dodin’s numerous proposals and instead choosing to focus on their shared love of creating unique and beautiful dishes.
Engaging and evocative even with its sparse dialogue and limited locations, Hung engages the senses with elaborate shots of the food, its preparation like an intricate dance. The attention to fine detail makes us feel as though we can smell and taste each meal, consuming it with our eyes as it is eaten by those seated at Dodin’s table. Rather than an instrumental score, Hung relies on a soundtrack of ambient sounds, the soft stirring of sauces and the low boil of pots on the stove, soothing and immersive in a way that doesn’t feel forced or trite.
Truly, the starring role of the film belongs to the food, the developing story of the characters parcelled out in bite-sized pieces between lingering shots of simmering bone marrow broth and flaming baked Alaska. The cast, as a whole, are engaging, Magimel and Binoche in particular bringing such a genuine tenderness to their roles that, even woven as they are amongst the preparation and presentation of the meals, their scenes together tug at the heartstrings.
