The Taste of Things (2023)
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The Taste of Things Movie Review
The Taste of Things is a 2023 French historical romantic drama film directed by Tran Anh Hung and starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel. It’s the best food film of all time.
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“May I knock at your door tonight?“
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The movie tells the story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet who she has been working for over the last 20 years. There have been films about food before (Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’ remains a delightful classic), but none have quite reached the level of greatness this one did. It’s the ultimate homage to the culinary art and the importance of enjoying our earthly senses.
French filmmaker of Vietnamese descent Tran Anh Hung is most famous for directing ‘The Scent of Green Papaya’, which was stylistically similar to this movie. Although I simply adore that film, The Taste of Things is his magnum opus. He showed his signature eye for detail here – every single meal gets to be made in front of our very eyes and through the rich colors, the sound of jugs and pots clanking and the steam rising from those pots you feel as if you can just taste those meals. If there is one prerogative here, it’s that this movie should definitely not be eaten on an empty stomach.
This story is about more than just food. It is also a love story and such a beautiful one at that. In fact, the movie cleverly posits that for gourmets food and romance function as the same thing. There is a shot of Eugenie in bed with her ass cheeks bare and Dodin coming into the room to caress her. That scene is as sensual as the food scenes, which themselves are shot with the same level of intimacy and passion that they felt like lovemaking. The movie switches back and forth between the culinary and the romantic scenes, staying sensual and elegant throughout.
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Then, tragedy strikes. Without spoiling too much, the third act is all about grief and loss and how when an important person leaves your life, it at first feels impossible to replace them, in this instance literally as both a relationship and a profession was tarnished with this death. The ending was so touching that it made me tear up and the film earned that emotion through strong character work as you really come to know and care for these people.
Juliette Binoche delivered one of the best and most underrated performances of the year. Eugenie is such an inspiring figure, a woman who has a high drive for life and all of its delights. She was so well contrasted in her demure personality with a more passionate Dodin. Benoit Magimel is very charismatic and moving in the role, but it is Binoche who delivered the best performance as I entirely bought her as this 19th century cook.
The scenes where the two dined together were incredibly charming and romantic, something that you rarely see in films today. This is the kind of movie that older people can enjoy – a film that is elegant, tasteful and simple in its pleasures while still containing some important life truths. Their speech about summer and autumn moved me so much.
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The Taste of Things is all about passion and how if you have passion for something in your life, you will be fulfilled. If you share that passion with your loved one, you are the real lucky one. While I did find the movie’s total avoidance of the theme of class a bit unfortunate, the 19th century French countryside setting came alive due to incredible cinematography, splendid production design and a phenomenal choice to include as little score as possible, focusing on the plethora of sounds made during cooking. Every single image and sound in this movie is deeply evocative and transportive.
Deeply sensual and incredibly romantic, The Taste of Things makes every image and sound count, which led to it being the greatest film ever made about food. In this story, food and love are inseparable from each other. This is Tran Anh Hung’s magnum opus as he employed his signature eye for detail to the fullest degree – the French countryside setting literally came to life due to superb cinematography and fantastic sound design. This is a story about passion above all else, a story that becomes tragic in the third act, but still ended in such an inspiring, heartwarming fashion. It is also populated with characters for whom you care about, especially Eugenie played so wonderfully by the great Juliette Binoche. This movie isn’t for everyone, but for those who appreciate slice-of-life storytelling that is all about the simple pleasures of life, it will prove to be an utter delight.
My Rating – 5
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