User reviews

Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel shine in their respective roles as a beautiful cook and her long admiring gourmet lover. The film is a great celebration of food with the first 20 minutes or so being a real feast for the eyes as a sumptuous meal is prepared in intricate detail as we salivate in our seats. This is very skilfully done as with minimal dialogue and accomplished direction we get a deft introduction to the characters involved as they create the mouthwatering dishes. There's a lovely tone to this film which celebrates in equal measure the love between the two lead characters and their shared passion for wonderful food and the lighting and cinematography is exquisite. The sequence where Dodin cooks for Eugiene is a delight as his two great passions come together, not least in the dessert. It was a pleasure to watch this life affirming film though I'd recommend you either eat immediately before it or have food ready immediately after as it will engage your tastebuds. Finally there is a winning performance from Bonnie Chagneau Ravoire as Pauline that is impressive for such a young actress.

Greetings again from the darkness. I do not cook and have never had an interest in learning to. Still, I do understand how some are drawn to it as an art form ... creating new dishes and new flavors, while generating such pleasurable sensations across the palettes of others. It's a passion like many professions (or hobbies), and it's one that is best shared with others.

This is the first film from writer-director Anh Hung Tron since 2016, and he has adapted the popular novel, "The Passionate Epicure" by Marcel Rouff. An extended opening scene (30 plus minutes) features a camera weaving in and around the activities in a kitchen where a gourmet meal is being prepared. Chit-chat does not occur. These people know their work and go about preparing multiple dishes precisely, meticulously, and expertly. Specific timing is the only thing requiring spoken language. Despite this, we learn much about these folks.

Juliette Binoche (Oscar winner, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, 1996) portrays Eugenie, the cook to gourmet chef Dodin, played by Benoit Magimel. Dodin periodically takes leave to mingle with guests, while Eugenie finds pure joy in her task at hand. Two assistants Violette (Galatea Bellugi) and Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) work efficiently and quickly. Pauline is young and relatively new to the kitchen, yet she possesses a preternatural taste palette and flavor instincts, while Violette is a long-trusted staffer. As viewers, we are in awe of the precision and coordinated efforts that go into preparing world class dishes.

As the film progresses, we learn Dodin has proposed marriage to Eugenie many times over the years. She has always turned him down, choosing instead their kitchen partnership as well as occasional evening soirees in her room (when the door is unlocked). This arrangement works for her and has made him famous in the culinary world. Love and respect exists between the two, and he worries about her too-frequent fainting spells and light-hearted moments. Their conversation one evening after work tells us all we (and they) need to know. As for their backstory, given Eugenie's mentorship of Pauline, we can't help but wonder if maybe Dodin had once recognized such rare talent in Eugenie some twenty years past.

This is a film, and these are performances, meant to be savored every bit as much as the dishes we see prepared and the garden Eugenie tends. It's a delicate world that requires precise movements and commitment ... just as any relationship. We can all strive to find the joy and satisfaction on display here, despite knowing that these types of connections will at some point lead to loss.

In theaters on February 14, 2024.

I am, I admit, a Crocodile Dundee cook - you can live on it, but it tastes like s*** Nevertheless, I revere those who are masters in the gastronomic arts.

Set in the 1870's, this film is a hymn to the pleasures of the table. The camera lingers lovingly over every pot and pan, every ingredient, every procedure, to the extent that it would have been wrong for the film to have been in any language but French. Anyone who can watch this film without salivating has no soul.

The plot is secondary to the food. Dodin (Benoit Magimel) is an expert, though amateur cook, whose hobby is hosting dinner-parties for a group of friends. For twenty years, Dodin has employed Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) as his cook, though she's far more than that. They sleep together, though she repeatedly declines his offers of marriage. Both performances are nigh-on perfect. There's also a young girl, the daughter of a neighbour, who has superlative taste-buds, and who wants to be taken on as an apprentice.

There's a bit more plot than that, including a comic dig at those who equate excess with excellence, but everything is subordinate to cooking and eating - and the actors do actually eat the food. One thing that grates with me is films where people don't actually eat the food in front of them.

I left the cinema hungry, and wishing that I had the patience and the dedication (and the time) to cook like that.

Oh, and though I grudgingly accept that, with the possible exception of the Chinese, the French are the finest cooks on Earth, I draw the line at ortolan.

Why dont they make movies like this anymore? The beauty of the food, people and surroundings take you away on a sensory trip. I also miss this idealized depiction of love. Everything is so delikate and Beautiful. I recommend you to what this if you respect and appreciate the art of food preparations and the beauty of a life Long romance. The asthetic is so pleasing, everthing from birds chirping in an early morning vegetable garden, the Sound of the food simmering, all the fine pressed linen clothing, the coiffed hair, the reflection of warm sunlight on the Walls and copper pots, the wind in the flowers on the forest floor. Exquisite!

During a time where food is rarely explored due to the demand for convenience and lack of energy that we're willing to provide, "The Taste of Things" invites audiences to transcend into a space that most of us have never known. Not only a space of pure romance in 1889, but one that is tied together with an equal adoration for the artistic and emotional nature of food, and the endless beauty that stems from the smallest details. Whether it's because Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel were married for 5 years in real life or simply because they're incredible actors, the chemistry and understanding for one another are potently sincere and encourage viewers to seek nothing less than what they're experiencing. Discover passion, meticulous care embedded under a foundation of years-long expertise, and a chase toward love that never ends even when most relationships do. The framework of a slow rotating camera, necessary silence, patient observation, and organic expression creates a tone that you can nearly taste. A delightful masterpiece by Anh Hung and one that I'm craving to see again.

A beautifully shot movie with excellent attention to sound and atmosphere. If you have an interest in cuisine I mean really strong interest and get joy out seeing the process of the making of haute French dishes then this is the movie for you. If not then it's a bit of a drag with more care put into these (very beautifully shot) scenes of plate after plate being prepared and enjoyed than actual story to be told. It's a frustrating film as there is a story underneath and when we are taken to that story on occasion it's full of potential and some well crafted monologue but it's too rarely visited to feel satisfied with this meal. There are some wonderful tender moments that are memorable but are drowned in one of the many sauces that the story puts ahead in priority. The story feels as though it ends before it really began and even with the ending being a sweet look at the past and what it means to love, it doesn't feel fully baked enough for that message to really mean much.

Cooking is a huge part of my life. I dream of a kitchen like the one in the movie where everyone could cook together. I also dream on having enough time to have cooking as a lifestyle! I'm the happiest when I'm trying nicely cooked meals. That movie spoke to me in so many levels. The love story, how romantic! The girls helping out, the girls eating the same food as the adults and learning to enjoy it. The style of the filming. Now I wish all cooking tv programs were like that, you watch the magic happening without the nonsense of the narrative from a presenter. I watched in French with Spanish subtitles so I missed some of the storyline and yet, it moved me to tears!

"Dodin" (Benoît Magimel) and "Eugénie" (Juliette Binoche) have a synergy in the kitchen that creates mouthwatering and innovative culinary treats for their friends. She does the cooking, he more the design; she shuns the limelight, he is more gregarious - but it's a professional relationship that has worked well for the last two decades. It's probably fair to say that they are both a bit slow off the mark, but gradually now their relationship begins to become one of a more personal, intimate, nature but she is still uncertain. How to win her round? Well he starts to prepare delicacies to tempt both her palate and her heart. The path of truth love never runs smooth, though, and soon their dynamic is facing a testing time that will likely see unwelcome change for all concerned. What I actually liked about this film is that there's not a great deal of dialogue. It looks great and the two actors genuinely convince as they prepare their gourmet dishes using ingredients and techniques that are way more fascinating than the unfolding drama between their characters. You can almost smell the food! It also doesn't shy away from some of the culinary curiosities of rustic French cuisine, so be prepared for a few dishes that might not do for your appetite what they do for those on screen, but by two hours in I found myself genuinely invested in what I was watching - and very glad I'd eaten first. Cooking is an art form; so is good cinema - we get both here in abundance.

La passion de Dodin Bouffant (The Taste of Things)

Ordinarily I would write a review of a French film in French, but I don't think I have the ability to convey what needs to be said. It will be hard enough in my native language.

Food is more than just sustenance. Food has language. Food has emotion. Food has meaning. When someone prepares a meal with such elegance and finesse to awaken your senses and inspire emotional responses, then they are expressing how much they love and care for you.

To allow the food to speak, this film has absolutely no musical score. The sounds used are those of the frying pan, the stove top, knives and utensils. There is also attention paid to the breathing of those preparing food. Every sound a person would encounter is amplified in the film to remind us of how food speaks to us. The audience will also notice that when the food is placed in a person's mouth, there is no sound. There is no chewing, no crunching, no sound whatsoever except for when the person swallows. True genius.

The film takes place in the 19th century, so the art of cooking takes a lot of time. No microwaves or electronic timers. Everything is done with skill and a timer built inside the heads of the chefs. My eyes were glued to the screen during the scenes of preparing food, of which there are many. It is shot almost as an action film with all the moving parts.

The metaphor of preparing food as expressing emotion drives the plot as the chef, Dodin, and his cook of 20 years, Eugenie, work through feelings they both can't seem to express.

It's a beautiful movie, heartwarming, and heart wrenching. For all the chefs reading this, you will love it. And for all people that love food, go see it and learn how much love goes into your meals.

Just Got out Of a The Taste of Things Screening.

Such an Excellent Watch.

Things I Liked about the Film -

1. 🌾🐦Firstly, the Naturalistic Elements of the Whole Thing. From the Birds in the Background, to the Walks throughout Beautiful Greenery. Scenes of Finely Preparing the Various Meals and then to the Sound of the Sizzling During The Different Dishes Actually being Cooked. It had this Certain Type of Beauty about it and it was also Very Relaxing to Watch.

2. 👪 The Performances -

• Benoit Magimel as Dodin, Perfect Performance by him, he Conveyed the Deep Care for Eugenie that was Indeed Needed for this Film.

• Juliette Binoche as Eugenie, Literally Perfectly Casted, She Has this Super Maternalist Nature to Her with her Cooking and Caring, even though none of those Girls were Her Daughters. And her Understanding Perfectly of the Process of Taste Within Various Dishes.

• Galatea Bellugi as Violette, Eugenies assistant, she added more feminity to the whole Picture.

• Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire as Pauline, the Prodigy, she has Exceptional Skill at such an Early Age, and with Honing by Dodin or Eugenie, she can Become an Absolute Master of this Thing.

3. 🎥 Some of the Cinematography Shots both indoors & outdoors were Crystal Clear and Coupled with the Colour Grading in Certain Shots, those Shots were Gorgeous to Watch.

4. 🍁 That Autumn Speech was so Beautiful and had so much Substance. Part of the Speech was Autumn Passing The Height of the Summer 🌞 to Get into Preparation for the Winter💧

Overall, it was a Gem of a Watch 💎

This is an exceptionally slow burn ( only in the allegorical sense , as they don't actually burn any of the food )

The aesthetics are mesmerizing and the presentation of the food was enough to make me hungry, even never having eaten French food in my life and being extremely picky . It was a love letter to food , to cooking , to art , to patience and to a lifestyle that no longer exists .

The natural feeling was amazing as well , these were good people , trustworthy people , people you want happiness for and want to win and that was all developed in the first scene , with no dialogue which is amazing filmmaking .

Another major shout out goes to the sound editing / track . The sound of the garden and the kitchen felt so real and added to your closeness so the characters , their lives and the food itself .

It's very very slow , it's very foreign , it's an art film and it's meant to develop at a snails pace . Appreciate that . Be ready for that and you'll love it. .

Let's start by the positive things: acting, photography, settings, detail. What could go wrong with so many tasteful ingredients? That the measures were wrong. Instead of focusing on the promising and mysterious relationship unfolding between the main protagonists, for most of the runtime we are forced to gorge on an endless parade of French culinary glories (unfortunately, only visually, which is what makes it frustrating). It is not that I did not like the movie, it is more like I felt that there was no "movie", no drama. I consider myself a fan of European slow paced cinema, but only when a drama is actually unfolding. Maybe it's just that I missed something. Would not recommend unless you are a studying French high cuisine from the XIX century, in that case, go ahead, it is the perfect documentary.

A leisurely, luminous portrait of love, culture and cuisine, The Taste of Things is a feast for the eyes. It's all about partnership through a shared passion, conveying feelings through fewer words and baked Alaska. With such deep themes and beautiful visuals, no wonder it's France's selection for this year's Academy Awards.

The Taste of Things is a tough movie to summarize. It's about so much more than its plot... but here goes. The film takes place entirely in a 19th century French manor, mostly in its warmly-lit, wood-accented kitchen and centers on the bonds between the characters. Dodin Bouffant (Benoit Magimel), an esteemed gourmet partly based on real-life gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin, oversees the meal, helps with the cooking and visits with his group of friends. His partner in the kitchen, Eugenie (Juliette Binoche), beams as she whips up dozens of French culinary marvels. They have two assistants, who seem more like daughters, the teen Violette (Galatea Bellugi) and her niece Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire). This scene unfolds each day for years. The film follows Dodin's and Eugenie's romance as it evolves from unspoken partnership to marriage to separation by illness, as well as how the younger members of the kitchen grow.

Director Tran Anh Hung opens The Taste of Things with a 38-minute long tracking-shot scene of the characters preparing an intricate meal with zero technology (it is the 1880s, after all), relishing every step of the way. I found it so satisfying to watch that I didn't pay any heed to its length, though this may not be the case for some viewers, as the only lines said are "Put the veal in the oven" and a couple directions like this. I actually enjoyed getting to know the characters by watching what they do and observing their body language. There's many more scenes like this one, none 38 minutes long, though. The film does have a bit of a languid pace, which takes some getting used to and might not suit some viewers' taste (pun intended). The few events that happen outside the kitchen happen either in the bedroom, in the living room or the adjacent garden. On another note, Dodin and Eugenie's relationship is a centerpiece of this film, and Magimel and Binoche as Dodin and Eugenie spellbind with their subtle yet powerful acting and palpable bond. Dodin has proposed to Eugénie a number of times over their 20 years together, to no avail. She says marriage is not right for them, because their bond is one of mutual respect and tenderness. The openness with which they discuss love is rare in modern films, as is their clarity on the matter - truly a mature romance. Additionally, the interactions between Binoche and Chagneau-Ravoire as Pauline are a delight to watch. Pauline's passion for food is shown in a scene where she names each of the two dozen items in a dish and when she nearly cries after tasting a baked Alaska; Eugenie sees herself in the young girl and takes her under her wing. Jonathan Ricquebourg's mouth-watering and skillful cinematography - tracking people as if walking beside them, sometimes peering into pots, and sitting at the same table as Dodin's "suite" of friends - along with Tran Anh Huang's careful direction adds an indescribable realism to the film. It's a film that will make you hunger for more.

The Taste of Things is a film about indulgence - in food, in love, in family. It also shows viewers that truly powerful relationships are those that transcend labels and that are bound by shared love for one another and, in this case, a shared passion. It shows viewers that food is inextricably tied to love, life and joy. Be forewarned that the film does contain scenes with partial nudity and smoking.

I give The Taste of Things 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 12 to 18, plus adults. The Taste of Things releases on February 9, 2024 in theaters and is an Oscar nominee. By Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST!

It's a period-based love story inspired by gourmet French cooking on a large estate in France in the late 19th century. The estate owner, Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), appears to live a lonely, wealthy life distracted only by friends who also enjoy carefully prepared gourmet food. His cook for the past 20 years has been Eugenie (Juliette Binoche), who lives in the third-floor servants' quarters but seems OK with periodic nighttime visits from Dodin, who wants to marry her. Eugenie's assistant is Violette (Galatea Bellugi), whom Dodin dismisses as unable to boil water. However, Violette's young niece, Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), shows a natural aptitude for discerning flavors and seasonings.

The film follows the preparation of several elaborate meals along with Dodin's ongoing efforts to get Eugenie to marry him. We also learn of Eugenie's health issues and their impact on Dodin and their relationship.

What to say about this movie? If you're a foodie, you may enjoy the lingering (and I mean lingering) preparation of gourmet food items. I'm not a foodie; where are my meat and potatoes? Dodin's gourmet companions are colorless, leaving a reasonably meager plot to Magimel and Binoche. By the end, I still didn't understand why Eugenie resisted Dodin's marriage proposal so long before eventually succumbing. Or did she finally resist another way? The ending leaves open possibilities.

I don't see this film doing well at the Academy Awards.

It is rare that one sees a film with the same sense of awe and pleasure as one experiences looking at a great painting in a museum where one can linger and examine the brush-strokes without people in the way. This film by the French/Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung is such a film. It is a 'must' for anyone of gastronomical inclinations, anyone training to be a chef, any true 'foodies', and experts on traditional French cooking. But it is also a film with stories, with happiness and with sadness. The film is set in the 1890s or first years of the 20th century, in provincial France. It seems to have been filmed entirely on location and the interiors take place in a traditional manor house. There is no electricity, and light is all from sunlight, candles, and oil lamps. There are no phones or other interruptions to the tranquillity of the setting. The cinematography is exceptional, with rich natural colour and ingenious camerawork (congratulations to the camera operator!) There is no sense of the existence of the outside world, and no one travels outside the bubble of their existence. The house is that of a famous gourmet, Monsieur Dodin, played quietly and magnetically by Benoît Magimel. For twenty years his cook Eugénie has lived with him and together they have created some of the greatest dishes of France on a daily basis, and invented several classic dishes as well. She is played by Juliette Binoche as a quiet, understated, and proud woman. Magimel has been in love with her and asking her to marry him for all that time, but she refuses to marry, even though they are lovers, because she prefers things the way they are. She does not really want to become a wife. She and Magimel have in a sense grown together into one person, and can communicate perfectly well in silence with an occasional glance or remark, or even a sound of approval or disapproval over a dish. Sometimes 'Mmmmm' is enough to convey paragraphs' worth of meaning. They discover a very young girl named Pauline who is a born gastronomic genius, and she enters their circle. She is played to perfection by Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire, who is also naturally able to communicate by silence and with her eyes. Everything about this slow and dreamy film is magical. But best of all is the endless demonstrations of preparations of complex dishes. And when making a pot au feu, for instance, Magimel does not extract separate garlic cloves, but cuts the garlic boldly in half and places those carefully with cut-side up down into the pot. Magimel has a circle of five friends who are also gastronomes, and they frequently come for special dinners. They exchange stories about food. One refers to an incident which took place in 1364 with Pope Urban V at Avignon. To the group, this might as well have been yesterday, because as gastronomy is eternal, food and wine tales are also ageless. At one point Magimel and Binoche drink a bottle of 1839 champagne; it had been shipwrecked and lay at the bottom of the sea for 50 years, but when recovered in 1887, Magimel had bought three bottles of it at auction. They drink the most splendid wines every day, and at one point Magimel is drinking Chambolle-Musigny and says it is his favourite burgundy. As for whites, there is for instance the best of the Puligny-Montrachets. (A bottle of the 2021 is for sale on the internet at the moment for £747.60 in case you are interested.) There is an amazing scene where the men are together and eating ortolans, with napkins entirely covering their heads. Ortolans are small rare birds, said to be the finest of all game birds. When President Pompidou lay dying he had his last meal, at his special request, of ortolans. I have never eaten one and don't feel comfortable about eating rare creatures. Ormeaux yes, ortolans no, because they now farm ormeaux on the coast of Britanny, so that is OK then. In Magimel's kitchen all the pans are copper, and there is even a special copper 'turbot pan' shaped like a turbot, and large enough to hold one. We see the turbot dish being prepared. The stove is a large black aga. The kitchen is large and there are plenty of surfaces. The garden supplies endless vegetables. The film is amongst other things a continuous stream of demonstrated recipes, showing every aspect of the chopping and preparation of every ingredient. We see it all so clearly that if we had the ingredients and time and patience we could recreate some of them just from what we have seen and heard in the film. At one point we see every stage of the preparation of a Baked Alaska; the subtitles say 'Baked Alaska' but in the French dialogue they do not say Alaska, they say 'Norwegian'. (Alaska means nothing to the French even now.) The home made ice cream is made in a sunken area full of chopped ice. We are treated to the information that the vol-au-vent was discovered by accident. The group then decides that the story may be apocryphal, but that they don't care because they love any story about food whether it is true or false. All of these people are able to concentrate so profoundly upon food and cooking because there are no distractions, life is quiet, and nothing need interrupt the preparation of even the most complicated dish. It does not matter if a dish takes hours to prepare, as the dish is more important than time. This film is a food-lover's dream. I have not discussed the personal dramas that take place because it is difficult to do so without spoilers. What a triumph and work of art this film is! It can teach you to savour food, love cooking, and above all, eating.

Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche are masterful, as usual, as they subtlety unveil a discreet but moving love story linked to their common passion for cooking and the art of French gastronomy. Accompanied by two stunning young actresses (Galatea Bellugi and Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) and excellent actors such as Emmanuel Salinger, nonetheless this film disappoints. Although I particularly enjoyed the (too?) long scene of the multi-course meal preparation, where the camera follows everyone's movements and gives us the impression of being with them in the kitchen, each sequence drags on and bores. It's a pity to have sacrificed the development of this atypical couple's story in favor of scenes of repeated culinary orgies that are unappetizing to watch.

This was like watching some grand French painting in motion, it is so beautifully filmed, edited, so colorful. I don't think it actually is a "foodie movie" despite the prolonged scenes of complex French food preparation, cooking, serving and pleasure. At the end of the movie there is a wonderful coda scene, which I will not reveal, except that it resonates back to a scene in which Dodin has a monologue about the physical and physiological process of consuming and enjoying a morsel of food. You know all along that there is something wrong with Eugenie (Binoche) but you don't quite understand what exactly is wrong with Dodin. It will take some thinking over.

By the way, you should look up what an "ortolan" is.

Difficult to define it.

It is a film about cooking, love, loneliness and good occasion of magnificent performances. Obvious, it is a film to feel not to describe it. Because, the beautiful images are seeds of special state of soul, the dialogues are wise crafted, the silence more precious than words. And because Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel and young Galatea Belugi and Bonnie Chagneau - Ravoire. For the first two, gallery of part of their characters , especially moments of that unique - charming Le roi danse to the portrait of Dodin Bouffant and illusion of a sort of version of Alain Delon.

It is source of emotions and introduction in cuisine as rafined art and manner to assume existence as miracle, compensation, the happiness as creation of new dishes, the young girls as sources of hope and joy and a kind of refuges. Et pourtant, the art of cooking, the dishes and their prepair are only the frame not only for a special love story but for essential things living out of definitions. A festin, this is, in my case, the humble definition of this admirable La passion de Dodin Bouffant for who I am profound grateful to director and actors and entire team making it posible.

Most people have small apartments with tiny kitchens and barely enough room for preparing the kind of meal that in the first 17 minutes of The Taste of Things is served to six men in suits and ties by a young apprentice and female cook. Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) learned the art of cooking from her mother and father, a renowned Parisian pastry chef. The main course includes a cream sauce for vegetables she spoons into a large bread bowl, topped off by flaming cake filled with ice cream - "baked Alaska" ("bombe Alaska" actually in this film) or "omelette norvégienne" in French. It is called a "scientific desert" created by the American physicist Sir Benjamin Thompson who made the discovery that egg whites made a great insulator for cold filling in a hot cake. After making this elaborate meal Eugénie almost faints, and I understand why she would after this physically exhausting and demanding culinary ordeal. She was a cook long before the manor owner Dodin but she never sits with his friends at the table. The original title of the film was Pot-au-Feu (Pot on the Fire), the name of an elaborate but comparably unerotic and bland looking meat and vegetable stew.

The film's title in French is La Passion de Dodin Bouffant and the narrative is about Dodin's desire for Eugénie and her cooking. Funding for this film came from the Loire region, Canal Plus and French National Television, directed by Tran Anh Hung, winner of the best director award at Cannes in May. Originally from Vietnam he has lived in France since 1974 and attended film school at École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière (ENS Louis-Lumière). Several of his films have won at Cannes in the past.

One thing I have noticed about cooking films set in France are the large kitchens, great utilities, and open spaces. It's a joy to cook in a place where there's room and so I pause here to note that it is a class difference if you don't have a good kitchen or can afford installing one. In Paris apartments can come without kitchens and so it is nothing to take for granted. When the owner moves, they take the kitchen with them. I have a stove in the US where the heat does not go outside anymore via a stove pipe but stays in the kitchen, that becomes like a furnace. In Stockholm during some renovations 'kitchens' are built into a closet with no room for the heat to escape except a ventilator that circulates above the stove. There is no storage for large pans or pots. The kitchen in The Taste of Things is in a French manor with a huge garden, a wine cellar and underground well of fresh water. A film like this is enjoyable for spectators who don't have such resources. Since this is a period pieces dressing for dinner is a luxury.

Historically film is a window to a world of privilege as the characters in this film. I was surprised to see a film like this at Cannes for it is about a world of an ideal past. The extraordinarily refined scenes with meat intensive dishes that require elaborate preparation are beautifully arranged. The kitchen has sauté pans, huge pots for boiling and apprentices who assist in the creation of delicacies from the garden or the market. If you watch this film while you're hungry it should make it even more pleasurable. The sounds of washing vegetables, steaming food, whipping, pouring, and sizzling dishes are part of this almost edible film. The young female apprentices are so used to cooking that they can even taste what the ingredients are without ever seeing them. In one scene, six men with napkins over their heads guzzle and slurp a dish with great relish, reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki's animated classic Spirited Away (Japan 2001) when the parents of ten-year-old "Sen" turn into pigs in an outdoor restaurant. But it is not just the consumption of food in The Taste of Things: we are instructed in the film that ostentatious, lavish meals constructed without a knowledge of food preparation is not French "haute cuisine".

The focus of the cinematography is of course on the utensils and preparation of gourmet meals. The conversation centers on how wonderful the food is with a short history of French cooking with important historical figures. The great Burgundy wines such as 'Clos Vougeot' revered in the Papacy situated in Avignon in the 13th century is part of the history lesson. The men at the table tell the story of Marie-Antoine Carême who grew up poor with fourteen brothers and sisters and not enough food to eat.

At the end of the film is a soliloquy by Dodin Bouffant on where food first lands in the mouth and on the peristaltic movement involved in digestion. The relish in which he tells this story is almost erotic, which makes it clear why it took 20 years for him to ask Eugénie to marry him. After all, he regarded her more as his cook than his wife. This is a question posed by Eugénie to him and it is important to her. Her 20 year relationship based on labor intensive food preparation with Dodin involves knocking on her door for permission to enter and peering into her bedroom to watch her partially undressed with her back to the door like a piece of sculpture. The way he thinks about her almost as a meal to devour is contained in his voyeuristic glances. In the meanwhile, his rudeness to the young female apprentices in the manor and other female cooks is obvious all the more since he in contrast relishes speaking with his male comrades who consume Eugénie's cooking and discuss her food with scientific detachment over wine and tobacco; Dodin may love Eugenie but she is eroticized in an uncomfortable way in Tran Anh Hùng almost perfectly created film and meticulously arranged mise en scène like one of Eugénie's gourmet meals.

Copyright Moira Jean Sullivan Movie Magazine International May 24, 2023.

This movie is what happens when you love something so dearly that words don't do it justice. If I had to guess I imagine this is a script written by a chef for chefs. It's so beautiful in both concept and execution it's truly a wonder. And having said that the only people that will truly appreciate this movie are chefs, I can't imagine anyone else having an appreciation for this sort of movie. However if you are a chef, or love cooking to this degree this movie is a MUST! I sat through this movie loving every second of it. I imagine when technology progresses far enough and we can actually smell and taste our movies this movie will be the best ever made.

10/10 this movie makes my heart and stomach happy.

Lovingly filmed (in natural light?), with much clatter and sizzle, it will appeal to foodies. The plot is not entirely predictable, partly because it is as fragile as a sheet of buttered and baked filo (?) pastry.

Every shot is like a painting. In particular, an outside meal successfully channels Renoir.

The main characters seem to stand for male, female, child archetypes. But not a hell of a lot happens. Just let it wash over you. Questions about who these people are and what happened to the poor people (and the washing up) are elided in a rather dated way. And don't go on an empty stomach-unless you don't eat meat.

This movie is about as engaging as a root canal. Two hours and fifteen minutes of watching an excessive display of food preparation and overindulgence, i.e. Gluttony, masquerading under the guise of haute cuisine. But it's French, so it gets a pass as they are the supposed standard bearers of all things cultural. I went to this movie with my wife based on the stellar reviews and we wanted to like it. We both lived and worked in Europe in our younger years and have an appreciation for authentic European culture. I am giving it a 2 rather than a 1, because the acting was good-what there was of it- and it did manage to capture something of the French character as well as the spirit of the times in which it took place.

At the risk of being seen as Philistines, we must call the glowing reviews of this movie as they are: the new clothes of the emperor.

Unless you are training to be a chef, or you have a need to flaunt your taste in high culture to your peers, it might be prudent to bypass this offering or, at the very least, wait for the DVD release. Be forewarned: This is two hours and fifteen minutes of your life that you will never get back.