{"id":92417,"date":"2024-02-15T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T10:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/?guid=034537adb954ee99e7d3efca14eb67c0"},"modified":"2024-02-15T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T10:18:13","slug":"the-taste-of-things-review-every-frame-is-delectable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/15\/the-taste-of-things-review-every-frame-is-delectable\/","title":{"rendered":"The Taste of Things review \u2013 every frame is delectable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span>t\u2019s likely that none of us will have bestowed upon us the epithet, \u201cThe Napoleon of Something Something\u201d within our lifetimes. Yet epicure extraordinaire, Dodin Bouffant (Beno\u00eet Magimel), has already earned the nickname, \u201cThe Napoleon of Gastronomy\u201d, and with good cause. For he and his cook\/lover Eug\u00e9nie (Juliette Binoche) dedicate their dawns and dusks to fashioning meals and menus, all to be tested on a \u201csuite\u201d (Bouffant\u2019s squad) of magnificently-waisted local gourmets.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in an idyllic southern French countryside at the tail-end of the 19th Century during the pomp of revolutionary chef Auguste Escoffier. The industrial revolution has bore such fruits as ice-cream makers, turbot kettles, and all manner of kitchen gadgets for poking, scraping and slicing. One may swoon as Eug\u00e9nie spreads ice-cream in the middle of two sponge cakes with a gorgeous-looking and oversized wooden paddle, clearly made specifically for the task.<\/p>\n

And their gigantic range cooker comprises the centrepiece of their fully kitted-out kitchen, a place which retains its immaculate order due to the eternal diligence of housekeeper Violette (Galatea Bellugi). Also in the mix is young Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), a gourmand-in-the-making who has the right stuff when it comes to palette and presentation, able to list the countless ingredients of one particularly rich sauce.<\/p>\n

We have not seen Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung on the scene since 2016\u2019s very little-seen Eternity, and The Taste of Things is a very welcome call-back to the ultra-sensual films upon which he made his name, such as 1993\u2019s The Scent of Green Papaya and 2000\u2019s The Vertical Ray of Sun. Bouffant\u2019s kitchen is bathed in a warm orange light that emulates the glow of hot embers, while Jonathan Ricquebourg\u2019s camera floats around the domestic space with a lightness and curiosity that allows us to monitor even the most minor of cooking processes.<\/p>\n

The foremost pleasure of The The Taste of Things is the photography of the food itself, with Tran so dedicated to colour, texture and sound that you can virtually smell these sublime creations as they\u2019re lifted from the stove. There\u2019s an erotic pulse to shots of Bouffant hoisting preserved pears from a jar, or Eug\u00e9nie pouring creamy b\u00e9chamel into the world\u2019s biggest vol-au-vent.<\/p>\n

If there were a foodie film Olympics (and there isn\u2019t as far as my knowledge goes, but maybe there should be), this one would stand in very good stead to duke it out with the likes of Babette\u2019s Feast, Tampopo, Big Night and Still Walking. It\u2019s like the antithesis of the current craze of fast-edited Tik-Tok recipe videos, as her you really get a sense of the time, effort and expertise that have been plunged into each dish.<\/p>\n

Yet the food is merely the creative passion of Eug\u00e9nie and Dodin, the former constantly refusing the latter\u2019s hand in marriage so the personal\/professional desire lines remain etched in the sand. There\u2019s little-to-no conflict in the film, yet that doesn\u2019t work against the fact that this is an extremely complex and nuance-based screen romance, complicated further by Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s minor health issues. Binoche and Magimel are both on sparkling form, as she appears in constant awe of the edible pleasures she is able to provide, while he sounds a corporeal symphony of grunts and snuffles while preparing food in a performance worthy of Depardieu in his pomp.<\/p>\n

Even though the title comes from Dodin\u2019s menu plan for a return visit from the Prince of Eurasia (a modest country stew to counter the prince\u2019s boorish overindulgence), there\u2019s little competition element to the film. We float through days and meals, ups and downs, celebrations and commiserations, as the story \u2013 with its fixation on the bounty of each season \u2013 becomes about inexorable ticking of the clock and the things we do to make our time on earth bearable. The film doesn\u2019t strain for meaning or metaphor, instead just showing us the events over a certain period and allowing us to sample and chew over them as we would heaving plate of delicious food. Just a wonderful film.<\/p>\n

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