In Italian cinemas from 9 May the film starring Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche which won the award for best director at the French festival in 2023. Here is the trailer, plot and poster of this film that straddles cooking and love.
Almost a year ago, al Cannes Film Festival 2023, The taste of things was awarded the Award for Best Directorwent to Trần Anh Hùngthe author of Vietnamese origin who won the Golden Lion in 1995 with Cyclo. Now the film, which was also France’s candidate for the Oscar, is even preferred to Antomy of a fallis about to debut in Italian cinemas, where it will be starting from May 9th distributed by Lucky Red.
Based on a novel by Marcel Rouff, entitled “The Life and Passion of Dodin Bouffant, Gourmet” and adapted by the director himself, The Taste of Things is a film which, set in late nineteenth-century France, talks about cooking and love, because – everyone should know this by now – making food for someone is an act of love, and with food we can have a relationship of pleasure and enjoyment very close to sensuality.
The story is that of a famous gastronome, the Dodin Bouffant of the book’s title, who over twenty years has formed a partnership with his cook and collaborator Eugénie that is, indeed, both culinary and sentimental. The woman, proud of her independence and fond of her freedom, however never wanted to marry Dodin, who will decide to perform a supreme act of love, seduction and devotion: cooking for her.
Playing these two characters, set in a dream context – chateaux in the French countryside, brass cookware, very fresh raw materials – there are two great interpreters: the César Prize Benoît Magimel and the Oscar winner Juliette Binochewho in addition to their talent bring into play on the screen that complicity resulting from a true love relationship they had many years ago.
Here is the official Italian trailer, poster and plot of The Taste of Things:
1885. The impeccable cook Eugénie has been working for the famous gastronome Dodin for over twenty years. Their partnership gives life to dishes, one more delicious than the other, which amaze even the most illustrious chefs in the world. As time passed, the practice of food culture and mutual admiration developed into a romantic relationship. Eugenie, however, is fond of her freedom and never wanted to marry Dodin. So, he decides to do something he’s never done before: cook for her.
The dishes made in the film and the consultancy for the kitchen choreographies performed by the protagonists were handled by Chef Pierre Gagnairewhich he obtained in his Parisian restaurant three Michelin stars. Here’s what Gagnaire said about his cinematic experience:
“The rhythms of the cinema and the kitchen are different, as frenetic in a restaurant as chaotic in the cinema, but in both disciplines teamwork is vital. What could a director do without the director of photography, without the electricians and the financiers? And what could I do without collaborators, without sous chefs… And they both have the same idea of direction. Because gastronomy – as Tran Anh Hung shows well in his film – is also synonymous with entertainment.”
For his part, the director of the film spoke thus of the relationship between the two protagonists of his film:
“The beauty of their relationship lies in that resistance. Dodin is still in love with her after all these years because he feels he has never possessed her in her entirety. A part of her still resists. (…) Instead, when it comes to the food, they are in perfect communion. This is the source of their chemistry; it elevates gastronomy to a true art. What is art if not an ability to enjoy? Gastronomy focuses on a sense foreign to the other arts: taste A gastronomic artist knows how to distinguish flavors that we cannot distinguish with such precision; he knows how to blend, measure, balance flavours, aromas, consistencies, temperatures…”.
