Cooking makes me anxious, but I love watching people cook…
I eat about ten foods, but love to hear about what people are eating even if I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole…
I love going to all kinds of restaurants, but hate when someone (friend or family) wants to cook for me…
I like to stay fit as a fiddle, but don’t need or want a gym rat or fitness buff for a romantic partner*…
I don’t want to get married (again), but love movies about marriage and weddings…
Which leads me to The Taste of Things directed by Anh Hung Tran who also wrote the adapted screenplay from a book by Marcel Rouff. A provocative theme of the film poses the question: is a shared passion mean you love the person or simply what the person can do (in the field you’re both passionate about)?
The Taste of Things also deals with all my aforementioned ironies IN DEPTH. I enjoyed the cooking and elaborate food preparation.
This time, I actually enjoyed the slow warm up to the story since Tran knows how to marinate the actors and cinematography (lushishly filmed by Jonathan Ricquebourg). The countryside scenes were especially sumptuous, and the sound of the breeze extra special.
Juliette Bonoche is a dream as per usual and a random aside is she reminds me more and more of Julia Roberts-they should play sisters someday. I will mention an irony or perhaps a contradiction with her character though. Her character was too shy/demure/humble to eat at the men’s table, but yet she had no problem being wined and dined by her romantic partner. It would have been one thing if he ate with her, but the fact that he was a feeder and wanted to watch her eat, creeped me out a bit.
And while I thought I had never seen the male lead, Benoit Magimel won the Cannes best actor award for The Piano Teacher, many moons and pounds ago*, BUT wit and charm “outweigh” appearance anyway and Magimel has the je ne sais quoi.
I don’t want to say too much about the plot, just that you’ll think it’s a pro-marriage film, but….wait until the end. Is that too much information?. Mais non!
