#11: THE TASTE OF THINGS

STARRING: Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. Written and directed by Trần Anh Hùng. Running time 134 minutes.

Have you ever asked yourself what the difference between America and France is when it comes to movies about culinary excellence? Well, here's your answer, in America you get films like 2014's Chef, about a chef played by Jon Favaeau who aspires to run a toasted cheese sandwich food truck in Los Angeles, while in France you get The Taste of Things, aka The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, a beautiful, sumptuous celebration of culinary excellence and cookery played out against a deeply spiritual love affair and set in rural France of 1885. 

This is an beautiful, delicious movie as engrossed in the art of cooking as it is in the love affair between Juliett Binoche's Eugénie and Benoît Magimel's Dodin Bouffant. He the rich gourmet resturanteer and nobleman and she his head chef of 20 years. 

Set in 1885 The film follows Eugénie and Bouffant as they prepare to serve an extraordinary multi-course monthly banquet he holds for his friends and fellow gastronomes. The film opens with an astonishing 38 minute long kitchen scene as she and he seemingly dance around the kitchen creating simply astonishing dishes of exquisite delight that look so good you can almost taste them.

However, when tragedy strikes and Bouffant loses his passion for the culinary arts he grudgingly starts a journey to rekindle his love of cooking with the aid of his 13 year-old apprentice.

This is a slow, elegant meticulous movie, beautifully directed by Trần Anh Hùng. It looks glorious, the acting is naturalistic and refined. The relationship between Eugénie and Bouffant is moving and beautiful.

I absolutely loved this film and was as captivated by the cooking as I was by the romance at it's centre.

9/10