On Friday, the film adaptation of The Hundred-Foot Journey will open (my review will run Friday as well). It’s a movie about food and cooking and love. And it got me thinking about how many films there are that deal with food in central ways — sometimes as romantic and personal, sometimes as something a little stranger.
So I compiled this list of 13 films — a baker’s dozen! — that represent some aspect of food, food criticism, consumption, eating and the like to whet your appetite. Drink up!
Ratatouille
1. Ratatouille (2007). Pixar’s (and, by extension, Disney’s) best film ever is this unlikely charmer about a rat who loves to cook, but being a vermin is unwelcome in most kitchens (there’s always Arby’s). A film that pays closer attention to the details of the real fine dining scene more than any other, it’s not only beautiful but a canny depiction of the critic-chef relationship.
2. Babette’s Feast (1987). This Oscar winner for best foreign language film depicts a Danish household where privation is a way of life, and what happens when a French housekeeper breaks with tradition and hosts a magical dinner. It’s tantalizing and conjures the exquisite longing that food can represent for us emotionally.
Sideways
3. Sideways (2004). What Ratatouille is to cuisine, Sideways is to wine: On point, evocative and full of complex, passionate relationships. Famous for its “I’m not drinking any fucking merlot!” line, pay attention to the wine the anti-hero is sipping near the end. Complex did I say? Oh, yes.
4. Toast (2011). This film adaptation of the memoir by gay British gourmand and critic Nigel Slater is a tender coming-of-age film and an elegant battle royal in the kitchen between a young man and his stepmonster.
5. Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978). An oldie-but-goodie, this 1970s caper film concerns great chefs being slowly eliminated by a mysterious killer who turns their own techniques on them. But why? A sumptuous romantic comedy, the cake-making scene (a huge bombe) is alone enough to turn you diabetic.
Chef
6. Chef (2014). Just earlier this summer, we got a taste of the dynamic between a chef and a critic that, remarkably, played out very similar in the Dallas blogosphere just last month. This wicked battle of style over substance from director-star Jon Favreau is a banquet of great cooking, both high-end and down-home (the brisket scene, shot in Austin, will make your mouth water).
7. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012). A meta-documentary about the world’s most respected sushi chef, this reverie on how precision and practice are as essential to great cuisine as passion is achingly beautiful yet bittersweet.
8. Julie & Julia (2009). Meryl Streep’s bubbly performance as Julia Child, and her energetic love of French cuisine, is as light as souffle.
9. Chocolat (2000). Lasse Hallstrom, who also directed The Hundred-Foot Journey, tackled a similar topic more than a dozen years ago about a cook whose recipes enliven a sleepy town. It shares much with Babette’s Feast as well, but is in English, so it’s easier to swallow.
10. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989). Helen Mirren was in a very different food movie before Journey, playing the title wife who is forced to eat … well, let’s just say the feast before them is something Hannibal Lecter would enjoy. Ironically, this is about the only one of Peter Greenaway’s film I can stomach.
11. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). An early film by Ang Lee, this family comedy about a great chef and his relationship with his daughters portrays the way food can often be used as a surrogate for other emotions.
12. Big Night (1996). Two brothers in 1950s New York await an important visitor who could turn around their struggling Italian restaurant. But will the chef-brother (Tony Shalhoub) compromise for the sake of success? Not a wholly successful film, but one that has a genuine love of food. Co-directed by and co-starring Stanley Tucci.
13. The Exterminating Angel (1962). An upper-class dinner party seems to be going fine, until, for reasons that make no sense, none of these privileged few can bring themselves to leave the dining room. For weeks. They will starve to death if they don’t, but that doesn’t seem to matter. How far will they go? This surreal classic was a failure in the eyes of its director, Luis Bunuel (he regretted not having them resort outright to cannibalism), but its way to turn dinner into an existential crisis is unique in the pantheon of foodie films.
