A lot about the holidays has to do with food. From turkey, to stuffing, to mashed potatoes, to cranberries, yams, to pumpkin-filled pies. And a wheelbarrow full of antacids. But there’s something fun when movies convey the pleasurable joys of cooking and eating. Would the movie Tom Jones be such a hit without the overtly-sexual eating scene between Tom (Albert Finney) and the woman he meets at an inn? Never has eating a cooked chicken been filmed with such gusto and carnal innuendo. Greta Garbo wanders around “memorizing the room” as she sensually devours grapes in Queen Christina. In Ken Russell’s Women In Love, Alan Bates quarters and deflowers a fig in front of his friends with equal lasciviousness.
Perhaps it would be fun to round up a few gloriously gluttonous films on DVD for a foodie film festival. Here are 10 choices.
La Grande Bouffe. A bizarre dark comedy directed by Marco Ferreri, and starring Marcello Mastroianni, about a group of rich friends who go off to a fabulous mansion in the country to indulge in an orgy of food, drink and sex with the express purpose of eating themselves to death. Banquets of incredible meals keep coming from the oven and devoured, toilets overflow; the final images of delivery men draping sides of beef on the trees and shrubs in front of the house is unforgettable.
The Loved One. Director Tony Richardson’s bizarre attempt to film Evelyn Waugh’s sardonic take at the funeral business in L.A. You owe it to watch this comic gem just to see Rod Steiger’s hilariously effete cosmetologist (to the dead) Mr. Joyboy and his grotesquely overweight, cackling mother (Ayllene Gibbons), lying in bed slicing into a whole roasted pig with great gusto.
Babette’s Feast. Based on a story by Isak Dinesen and set in Denmark in the 19th century, this flavorful film is about Babette (Stephane Audran)- a selfless housekeeper and cook for two elderly sisters (who have foregone marriage because of their strict pastor father). Babette wins the lottery and (secretly) spends all the money on the makings of a fabulous feast she creates for the sisters and their congregation. The mouth-watering seven-course meal includes turtle soup, pancakes with caviar, quail in pasty shell, rum sponge cake, cheese and cognac.
Feed. Deliciously sick 2005 shocker about a serial killer who kidnaps obese women and force-feeds them until they die, videotaping the whole thing for the internet. The movie just screams “Thanksgiving.” It can be used to force relatives to flee your house before desert is even served.
Big Night. This zesty indie movie about two Italian brothers (Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub) running an Italian restaurant in New Jersey in the 1950s is obviously a labor of love. All the scenes of cooking in the kitchen are joyous to watch. Tony Shalhoub even says of the lasagna- “It was so good you had to kill yourself after you ate it.”
Julie & Julia. Meryl Streep gives a savory, sensational performance as Julia Child in this romantic comedy written by Nora Ephron. While the movie flashes back to Child’s early days, it also chronicles blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who challenges herself to cook every recipe in Child’s influential Mastering The Art Of French Cooking in 365 days. The cooking sequences really convey the joy and heartbreak of cooking and will raise your cholesterol levels just by watching.
Ratatouille. I put off seeing this animated Pixar film for years. The least appetizing thing I could imagine was a story about rodent cooking in a Parisian restaurant. Much to my surprise a friend forced me to watch it and it was a delectable delight. What was so surprising was the almost porn-like detail to the act of creating in the kitchen which was palatable as it was pleasantly enjoyable.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Director Peter Greenaway, I know, is an acquired taste. But this epicurean exercise in excess is so over-the-top it’s a hoot. It stars Michael Gambon as Albert, a fearsome gangster who owns a fabulous French restaurant and Helen Mirren as his cheating wife Georgina. When Albert discovers his wife is his having an affair with a bookshop owner- Michael (Alan Howard), he sends his goons to kill him by force-feeding him the pages of a book. Georgina achieves operatic revenge by having her lover’s body cooked and fed to her husband. Yum.
Eating Raoul. This delicious 1982 dark comedy is directed and stars Paul Bartel as a wine snob living with his nurse wife (Mary Woronov) who dreams of opening a restaurant. The hit on a way to raise money by luring swingers to their apartment, killing them and robbing them. They sell their bodies to a dog food company. Robert Beltran plays the hunky locksmith who catches on to their scheme and fool-heartedly wants in, only to end up a spicy Spanish dish they feed to the real estate agent helping them form their dream restaurant. “Bon Appetite” indeed.
Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe? Yummy comedy with a full-bodied, furiously funny performance by Robert Morley as the arrogant publisher of a gourmet magazine “Epicurious.” He has just assembled a list of the most fabulous meals, and suddenly the chefs famous for their dishes start to get murdered. The gorgeous Jacqueline Bisset plays a pastry chef who has a one-night stand with a chef famous for “baked pigeon in crust” only to discover him dead in an oven. There’s a playful jolly humor to this mystery, and it takes a sinfully scrumptious take on all the food.
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