Food in Films [General]

2008 Jun 23
It all started in this thread ---> www.ottawafoodies.com <---, the talk of food in films.

Let's open up the topic a bit further, to include other Foodie Films, including the good , the bad and the stinky.

Some of my faves:

Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) 1992
Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) 1987
Chocolat 2000

Should I rent "Ratatouille" or "Life is Sweet" ?

2008 Jun 23
No foodie movie list would be complete without this odd one from 1985, Tampopo! ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/ ) Part of the review goes like this "Woven into this main story are a number of smaller stories about the importance of food, ranging from a gangster who mixes hot sex with food to an old lady terrorizing a shopkeeper by compulsive squeezing of his wares"

2008 Jun 23
I would definitely add Mostly Martha and Big Night to the list

2008 Jun 23
an enthusiastic ditto on Tampopo, and to the Capt'n, Ratatouille was much better than i thought (feared) it was going to be when i found myself being dragged to it. I'm glad i watched it ... and ended up watching it a second time w/ god-daughers. The food critic character is classic.

2008 Jun 23
Delicatessen

2008 Jun 23
I forgot to add this to my faves list:

Soylent Green (1973) info link here ---> www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/ <---

Even though this was a 1973 sci-fi thriller based in the year 2022, it still holds up today, somewhat.

It's about a future food called Soylent Green.

Notice how the word Soylent is so close to Soya and the word Green ? well .... the word speaks for itself nowadays.

I can just imagine, somewhere during a President's Choice Organics think-tank session, where someone says ... "Let's do a soya based product and call it Soylent Green". yeeesh.


2008 Jun 23
Cap'n - Soylent Green also makes my top 10, I love it!

2008 Jun 23
Dont forget "eat drink man women" the opening scean is epic...

2008 Jun 23
Da Butcher;

Guess ya didn't see it yet but this topic Eat Drink Man Woman - Ang Lee, --->www.ottawafoodies.com <---
was the spring board for this Food in Film topic.

In the opening scene ( ), I really liked the use of a barrel smoker/bbq and when the chef blows up a dead duck like a balloon. Kinda funny, in a sick way.

2008 Jun 24
How about God of Cookery? An adorable tale from the maker of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Ahem:

"A famous restauranteur in Hong Kong loses his edge, and is tossed out of his food empire into the streets by a competitor in an all-or-nothing contest. Down and out, he is taken in by a cook at a street-snack stall, and together, they go on a quest to make the perfect snack food. In this quest, many lessons are learned, and many funny moments unfold. In the end, of course, all is well, and the epicure is reminded that all good food is soul food, after all, and he once again reigns as the 'God of Cookery.'"

2008 Jun 24
Who could forget the FOOD PORN from Sophia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette... there were feasts, banquets and of course that extremely decadent cake scene.

Which serves as a segway to another food review...

I was recently in Stratford, Ontario and stopped in on a local cafe called Let Them Eat Cake for lunch. The place is a favourite with the locals, and serves an all-day breakfast and light lunches. All the food looked fantastic, great sandwiches, soups and salads... but lets just say as it was a Girlie Weekend, so we decided to be a bit crazy and order dessert for lunch. LOL.

We each chose a different type of cake (and we were happy to share & compare). As it turned out quite by accident all 3 cakes had different types of "icing" so it gave us an idea of just how talented this shop was. One gal ordered the Hummingbird Cake (with cream cheese icing), another had the Raspberry Torte (with butter cream icing) and I chose the Black Forest Cake (which of course is basically just whip cream for icing). All the desserts were FANTASTIC! And the slices were huge, we couldn't finish it all, each wedge was about 3 inches wide, 6 inches long and 8 inches high... all this for $ 4.75 / slice. So if you are ever in Stratford check this place out, just one block from the downtown Avon Theatre.

2008 Jun 24
You can't miss La Grande Bouffe (1973). The film tells the story of four friends who gather in a villa for the weekend for the express purpose of eating themselves to death. Bouffer is French slang for "eating" (the Italian abbuffata means "great eating"). It's a nice movie.

2008 Jun 24
I'm a Disney fanatic, but even my hubby liked Ratatouille!

2009 Feb 18
The recent conversations re. Pad Thai's ketchup origins reminded me of a new-ish movie to add here: The Grand Chef, which might be typified as Korea's answer to Itami's Tampopo or Ang Lee's Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Not really an answer, per se, as all three movies are completely different but perhaps they do share some nuances / themes. And while its not received the attention of the other titles, it might be interesting to Ottawa Foodies w/ even a tiny appreciation of Korean food.

www.imdb.com/title/tt1135972/

For lack of many IMDB reviews, here's my synopsis: its a mystery/drama of sorts, the main scene involving a young chef-savant implicated in a poisoning via fugu fish episode. This is folded into a broader, background story-line about regaining honor through some sort of Iron-Chef type of contest (but at a national level). That's the most predictable important aspect of the movie, and its set against an historical context perhaps difficult for non-Koreans (and non-historians) to fully appreciate.

In any case, on the way through the movie, you or your children (should they be viewing) will witness scenes not necessarily for the weak of stomach or with sensitive relationships to biology: examples include decapitation/skinning of still wriggling fish, arm's-length bovine inspection (arm's length, not in the corporate sense), the imprinting of food fetish through corporal punishment (military->ramen, in this case), and the use of sharpened charcoal in restoring familial honor. There's also plenty of slapstick humor; schlocky love interests; and poignant scenes a plenty--the main character's relationship to the family cow raised from birth was particularly so.

And in a theme that reminds me a bit of the ketchup pad thai discussion, also raised is the military occupation and attempted cultural subjugation by Japan, and the assimilation / sharing of culinary influences between the two nation-states. There's a reminder in this movie (maybe?) that national cuisines don't just bubble out of the ground: there's a lot of messy adoption of external influences, sometimes forced and sometimes unconsciously.

There's a trillion cultural nuances i missed. But, perhaps the most important point of interest is that you (my fellow OFer) may not last more than 15 min before pausing the dvd to rummage around your kitchen for cabbage, daikon, your sharpest knives, some hot stone pots, some charcoal. Some of the cinematography is gorgeous -- the food lifts off the screen! You may also find yourself comparing your knife bearing arm's cadence with those on the screen, and (for the novices among us) begin recognizing where the divide between hobby and (true, undiluted) discipline begin.

If there are any OF'ers of Korean descent, apologies for the mis-interpretations / simplifications (please correct!!). Again, mine are first viewing impressions, and for purposes of full-disclosure, formed under the influence of a bit of so-ju (and Oban for the cross-cultural effect) and with pauses for kimchee "refreshments".

2009 Feb 18
The Goonies:

CHUNK: "I'm so depressed." (Squirts whipped cream into his mouth)

2009 Feb 18
hehehe, yes, i remember that one too. :)

2009 Feb 18
I have wanted to see but avoided most of these pictures (except, predictably, for Chocolat 2000 - but that was a friend taking me to see it). No one I've been involved with, or none of my friends, shares my liking for food knowledge, from ingredients to preparation; and seeing them alone is downright dangerous, yet depressing. Tiny kitchen is tiny, and disorganised, and I have all the wrong or useless cookware... so I'd up in restaurants and significantly poorer in my bank account... yeah, I know, nothing new to foodies here. :)

2009 Feb 18
Niall - The "perfect kitchen" day dream NEVER goes away. I think most Foodies will tell you it haunts us our whole lives... BIG & BEAUTIFUL are two words most of us can relate to. Be it counter space, cupboards, pantry, appliances, or the latest kitchen gizmo. And even if you eventually have a decent sized kitchen, ya still envision the "dream" kitchen. LOL

*The picture is from the CHEO 2008 House... my latest fantasy kitchen. Sadly, it now belongs to someone else :-(


2009 Feb 18
You know F&T ...

Not all of us foodies have that BIG & BEAUTIFUL "perfect kitchen" day dream.

I for one, am happy to have a kitchen that looks quite like this picture.

I don't need or want "counter space, cupboards, pantry, appliances, or the latest kitchen gizmo." (Isn't it the purpose of those gizmo's to fill all those cupboards, anyway ?)

I've see a number of kitchens that looked like the CHEO 2008 Dream House Kitchen over the years. Most of those that have them either don't want to cook,(lack of interest or laziness) or can't cook very well (also due to lack of interest or laziness).

They use them as status symbols and to layout the buffet they bought from a caterer.

To this foodie ... it's about the taste of the company and the taste of the food and not the taste of the interior decorator.

It's kinda like an watching horrible B-rated movies in someones really 'impressive' home theatre.

Give me a guitar or two and a fiddle, in the parlour ..... anyday !


2009 Feb 18
I think the RONA buckets add a certain je ne sais quoi...

And I agree with CC- a lot of people with amazing kitchens can't/don't/won't cook. What a sad waste of space....

2009 Feb 18
Anyone ever see :Eating Raoul"?

2009 Feb 18
Heh, F&T, I wasn't thinking of those types of kitchen... and I agree, it's not necessary for good food cooking. What is, I think, is imagination, ingredients, and proper materials. But a bit of space never hurts. :) (At least I do have some counter space, as opposed to where I was in the bachelor apartment before.) Right now, I'd settle for the latter two... (Currently: zero. But dreaming :))

2009 Feb 18
Well I for one still love the "dream kitchen" and I wouldn't abuse it if I owned it... I'd actually use it, and invite my much better than me Foodie Friends over so they could enjoy it as well (be that cooking, eating or partying). Any takers?

Pan Bagnat & Captain C - I agree the Rona Buckets make it... there is indeed something wonderful about the small lived in, much loved kitchen.

Eating Raoul... now that takes me back a long ways... I need to find that on video.

2009 Feb 19
I'm also happy to have a kitchen that looks quite like that picture Captain - in fact I'm very curious where you found that picture because that's MY kitchen! (Maybe I posted it here before did I?)

The Rona buckets are still there - it's where we keep staples like flour and rolled oats. In fact we have about a dozen buckets of stuff though only 2 or 3 are usually in the kitchen at any given time - depends on what we are making. The rest are in the basement. So they get switched around a lot. The small bucket in front of the dishwasher has local honey in it.

I guess truth be told I wouldn't mind having a little more space - even the same kitchen without so many doors coming off it would be nice. There are 6 doors coming out of my kitchen! 2 to the right (one foreground, one background to the right of the counter, going up the stairs), 2 to the left (basement door which you cannot see), and 2 behind you in that picture (one outside, and a closet door converted to a pantry). It can sometimes be a pretty big challenge working in that kitchen especially where we don't have an enclosed porch / mud room off it, so it also is home to boots and coats. And we also have our washer and dryer far to the right behind the door there. It can be extremely cluttered at times, and frustrating as heck. But I'm a modest guy and I'm quite happy with my modest kitchen!

2009 Feb 19
LOL & Cryin...

Captain C & Zym - You guys made my day. This is too d@mn funny...

Just goes to show that we all have to be careful what we post on line. Captain "Caper" lives up to his name once more... although I think at times I swear the CC stands for "Candid Camera".
:-)


2009 Feb 19
Hey Zy..

I'm so glad you picked-up on the picture of your own kitchen. I was wondering if you would ... then come out and say it.

No... you did not post the picture of your kitchen here on Ottawa Foodies.

I think you can figure it out. How I got it ... without entering your home.

I'll give ya a few days to see if you can come up with it.

If you don't, I'll spill the beans to you (and not publically). (BEANS ... there is the foodie content)

And to save you a trip to Fresh Foodie ... the name of the original jpeg has been changed by me to 'alanskitchen' and then this site changed it to '14190'.

Hmmmmmm.

Capt. Caper

PS: Notice that in my posting I did not identify who's kitchen it was. This was all done in fun. I'm glad to see you are not offended and to see F&T (and maybe others) got a big kick out of it.


2009 Feb 19
Well Captain, I'd rather you just told me rather than play games with me. I was offended at first, but whatever, I'm pretty easy-going. I'm mainly concerned because it is taken with a wide angle lens, which means it was not taken by anyone in my family. So I'd like to know where it was from and in what context it was found.

Though I'll guess that it is from facebook. I can think of 2 people who probably took it. And if it's either of them I'm not really concerned.

2009 Feb 19
OK ... No games. My intent is not to offend or upset you.

I'll send you a message.

...and look I must serious ... there is no picture on this post!


2009 Feb 19
dunno if its appropriate to do so, but to bridge the kitchen themes here, another film that might appeal to some:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0323872/

2009 Feb 25
Not one mention of "Hamburger America"? By far, my favorite.

This superb documentary by George Motz explores some of the more unique and groundbreaking hamburgers across the United States.

It's become so popular, not only did it spawn a blog, book, soon to be tv show, but the most relevant, the NYC Food Film Fest. That's right, once a year, people gather 'round to celebrate food films, and get to eat the food featured on film. Talk about a foodie's paradise.

The point: It's really fascinating stuff.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0488835/