A certain cinematic taste for the culinary world

Just like reality television, social networks and TV series, culinary aromas have been spreading in cinemas for a long time. As of now, it will be released on November 8th The Passion of Dodin Buffan By Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung, which France is sending to the Oscars, despite the harsh reviews it has received, there is no doubt that it relies on the image of this epinal abroad. then, Pleasure menus. Troisgros By Frederic Wiseman, the most Francophile of American documentarians, who invites us once again, starting Wednesday, December 20, in Kitchen and Dining.

These two films are a priori very different. Here is a fiction interpreted by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, which brings to the screen, playing on the magnetism between food and meat, the character of the gastronome invented in 1924 by the novelist Marcel Ruf.The Life and Passion of Dodin Buffan, Gourmet, re-release menu Fretin 2021). is a documentary that traces the rituals, respect for the product and the pursuit of excellence at the counter of one of the rare French restaurants with three stars for fifty-five years.

Taste and spirituality

However, two points unite them. First of all, the fact that it was filmed by cinematographers who accepted and loved France even more without having a native place there. Then, from cooking and eating to a gourmet celebration of the art of living, part of national cultural treasures such as Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) and Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935). Funds. This epicurean philosophy permeates the vast majority of films that revolve, directly or indirectly, around the kitchen. wing or thigh by Claude Zide (1976), Tampopo by Juzo Itami (1985), Babette’s holiday Gabriel Axel (1987), Chinese holiday by Tsui Hark (1995), Vatel Roland Joffe (2000), taste of life by Scott Hicks (2007), The aromas of the palace (2012) Christian Vincent: So Many Titles Distinguished in Gastronomy – Sometimes Even Priesthood (Vatel) and Epiphany (Babette’s holiday) – aesthetics of taste and spirituality.

Against this trend of the majority, a group of bad boys continues to shake this noble foundation of fellowship. Food, far from being a celebration, becomes a bad object, a symptom of the flatulence of consumer society, a corrupt instrument of our poisoning, even of our planned death. Not surprisingly, we find two champions of the category in the 1970s—the radical decade. This is holiday by Marco Ferrer (1973) and The genesis of food (1979) by Luke Mullet.