Used to be that artists in films were the likes of Vincent van Gogh (Lust for Life) and Michelangelo (The Agony and the Ecstasy), suffering and starving for their art.
Today's artist is the chef (see: Babette's Feast, The Big Night, Spanglish, Ratatouille and the forthcoming No Reservations, the English-language remake of Mostly Martha -- that's Aaron Eckhardt and Catherine Zeta-Jones above) suffering and savoring for theirs.
Have foodies taken over the movies? Or is food is such an elastic metaphor that it can embrace everything -- from art to cannibalism, from capitalism to spiritual communion, from aphrodisiac to colonialism? Yes. And yes.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos' hilarious political allegory How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman I depicts Brazilian Indians who resist colonization by eating the colonials. In Luis Bunuel's sly The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie gourmet food suggests capitalist consumption. Gabriel Axel's sublime Babette's Feast (based on a story by Isak Dinesen) is about food as agent of religious revelation. And then there's Juzo Itami's Tampopo, a heroic quest for the perfect noodle. And in Alfonso Arau's Like Water for Chocolate, food is at once revolutionary, sensuous and emotional. These five -- plus Ratatouille -- are my nominations for tastiest food films. Yours?
And am I crazy to read the subtext of Ratatouille as Pixar -- the rats in the house that Mickey Mouse built -- reaffirming the true mission of Walt Disney as Remy the rat reaffirms the values of chef Gusteau?
Comments (22)
What about Eat Drink Man Woman?
Posted by anonymous | July 3, 2007 12:02 PM
Posted on July 3, 2007 12:02
And it's American remake, Tortilla Soup....I like 'em both.
Posted by Carrie | July 3, 2007 12:03 PM
Posted on July 3, 2007 12:03
Lest we not forget The Clumps in NUTTY PROFESSOR... a fine film that reminded us that food really brings the family together. Oh, the divine familial bond in the dining room! (Excuse me while I burp!)
And remember Big Momma (not Big Momma's house) in SOUL FOOD? Food - no strike that - GOOD FOOD - keeps the family together. Then again, they almost burnt down the house.
What's for dinner, Carrie?
For taste and more, there's ENCORE! (Sorry, Philly.com isn't advertising on blogs YET!)
Posted by Jesse | July 3, 2007 1:15 PM
Posted on July 3, 2007 13:15
Cook! Thief! Wife! Lover! Gorgeous Peter Greenaway compositions, and a political subtext I still haven't completely sussed out. Is it all about Thatcherism?
Posted by Adam B. | July 3, 2007 11:29 PM
Posted on July 3, 2007 23:29
my favorite movie with food in it is Ratatouille. Why? Because Unlike some people I think it's cool to have Rats work in your kitchen.
Posted by Cora | July 4, 2007 9:17 AM
Posted on July 4, 2007 09:17
...and Julie Dash's phenomenally gorgeous DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST which played for weeks on end at the Ritz a few years back...includes South Carolina/Georgia gullah feasting like hardly ever put on the screen before.
Posted by Vince Young | July 4, 2007 12:28 PM
Posted on July 4, 2007 12:28
Daughters of the Dust is an excellent addition to the foodie-movie menu. I don't think of it as a food movie, but of course Dash uses the preparation of home-grown ingredients both as a symbol of community relations as well as religious communion. Thanks, Vince
Posted by Carrie | July 4, 2007 4:13 PM
Posted on July 4, 2007 16:13
Cora-
Rats in the kitchen? That's gross!
But... it brought to mind two more kiddie foodie movies:
1 - MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN - Remember Rizzo? Yuck!
2 - OVER THE HEDGE.... another animated delight showcasing food.... America's obsession with having "a lot" (of anything or everything!) But particulaly junk food!
Posted by Jesse | July 4, 2007 9:25 PM
Posted on July 4, 2007 21:25
What about Willy Wonka?
MMMMMMMMMMMMM
Posted by Javier | July 4, 2007 9:34 PM
Posted on July 4, 2007 21:34
Carrie--
As usual, I march to a slightly different drummer, meaning I tend to have fonder memories of food "moments" in films than of movies that are almost totally consumed/dictated by food (too many of them tend to lean towards the gourmet). Consequently, even though I raved about "Babette's Feast" when it opened, I can take or leave it now (although it's always rather difficult to leave Stephane Audran).
Anyway, here are a few select scenes that always make me hungry:
1. You and I may be the only two critics on the planet who put James Brooks' "Spanglish" (criminally underrated, I say) on our respective ten best lists the year it came out. I love the scene in which Adam Sandler makes the most exquisite late-night egg sandwich I've ever seen. It had my mouth watering. I also like the scene in which he cooks for Paz Vega.
2. Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern, both so charming together, building hamburger sandwiches with tomatoes and onions in Alfred Hitchcock's "Family Plot." That scene left me salivating.
3. Shirley MacLaine, in a small-town saloon, munching on what looks like the biggest burger ever, with its juices running down her face, in Vincente Minnelli's "Some Came Running." Sublime.
4. Jack Lemmon enjoying, yes, a Swanson Frozen TV Dinner (fried chicken, natch) while watching "Grand Hotel" in Billy Wilder's "The Apartment."
That's it - so far.
BTW, I thought the rats preparing the meal at Gusteau's in "Ratatouille" was a clever reference to the mice making Cinderella's dress in a Disney film from another era.
Posted by Joe | July 6, 2007 9:39 PM
Posted on July 6, 2007 21:39
The dinner scenes in "Tom Jones" and "A Life Less Ordinary."
Posted by JDM | July 7, 2007 8:50 AM
Posted on July 7, 2007 08:50
I was looking for hidden mickeys in Ratatouille, but then I remembered that Walt Disney was emphatic about Mickey Mouse avoiding any comparisons to real rodents. I'm sure a Mickey reference in the movie would have amounted to sacrilege...unless he was eating at a table with the other humans.
Posted by Godard | July 9, 2007 2:21 PM
Posted on July 9, 2007 14:21
For we gourmands, Luke devouring 50 eggs while being 'egged on.'
Barbara Stanwyck flipping pancakes in Connecticut, a film about a chef/homemaker who isn't.
Posted by Exiled in New Jersey | July 10, 2007 7:39 PM
Posted on July 10, 2007 19:39
Exiled: for the movie-illiterate I'll specify that you're talking about Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and Stanwyck in "Christmas in Connecticut."
Posted by Carrie | July 10, 2007 8:13 PM
Posted on July 10, 2007 20:13
Maybe a parallel with the vagabonds in Tompopo, who sneak into fine restaurants after closing to concoct culinary wonders. Fun food movie, anyway.
Posted by Phil | July 11, 2007 11:39 AM
Posted on July 11, 2007 11:39
Odd what appeals. The omelette born of passive
dejection at the end of Big Night and the casual perfection of the french toast preparation near the end of Kramer vs Kramer.
Love your theory about the rat in Ratatouille.
Still, you could be crazy.
Posted by Ralph Hirshorn | July 13, 2007 2:49 PM
Posted on July 13, 2007 14:49
There's also a tiny sub-genre of what might be thought of as anti-food movies. I'm thinking of Bluto Blutarsky's trip through the food line, ending with his imitation of a zit and the ensuing food fight, in "Animal House, and the unsurpassable (if there is a God) scene in "Monty Python's 'Meaning of Life'." There are probably others, but those came to mind first.
I'm not sure which camp Chaplin's scene with his shoe in "The Gold Rush" would fall in.
Posted by wwolfe | July 18, 2007 1:29 PM
Posted on July 18, 2007 13:29
I suppose it counts more as an anti-food moment than anything else, but there's always those appalling meals shared by Alec McCowen and Vivan Merchant in Hitchcock's "Frenzy."
As for "Spanglish" ... one of my main memories is musical rather than gastronomic: Cloris Leachman attenpting to teach the child Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life."
Posted by chris sch. | July 27, 2007 7:51 PM
Posted on July 27, 2007 19:51
Your talk in your NO RESERVATIONS review of the coldness of Catherine Zeta-Jones's performance put me in mind of a reaction that I had when I saw Bebe Neuwirth playing Lola in the revised DAMN YANKEES. My thought, then and now, was that Fosse heroines come in two basic forms: The Roxys (like Gwen Verdon, sympathetic and emotionally accessible) and The Velmas (like Chita Rivera, chilly and inaccessible).
The problem then was that Neuwirth, a Velma, was playing a Roxy role.
Perhaps NO RESERVATIONS is another case of a Velma, in this case Zeta-Jones, attempting to pass herself off as a "Roxy"?
Posted by chris | August 10, 2007 2:57 PM
Posted on August 10, 2007 14:57
Great...I love this post, I got more info here, Thanks.Really happy to read this, I too interested in new Fashions, I got lot of ideas of pashmina shawls and fashion through internet.It has an excellent selection.
Posted by Flower Girl | August 27, 2008 11:29 PM
Posted on August 27, 2008 23:29
This is only for the blog owner I just want to thanks this guy because of it I get lots of information from it ….
thanks for the info you provided
Posted by Girl Dress | September 25, 2008 10:53 PM
Posted on September 25, 2008 22:53
Ein Kompliment für diese tolle Seite.
Eigentlich bin ich durch Zufall darauf gestoßen und dachte mir,
einen netten Eintrag und viele Grüße zu hinterlassen.
_____ \\\!!!///____
______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___
Vielleicht schauen sie mal auf meiner Homepage vorbei!
Posted by Germany Sylt | December 23, 2009 1:44 PM
Posted on December 23, 2009 13:44