Review: 'The Taste of Things' is a multi-course meal for the senses, capturing the beauty of food and Juliette Binoche
Food and film are love languages in “The Taste of Things,” a French romance expressed most passionately and sensually when its lead actors strap on their aprons and start literally cooking.
Dodin Bouffant (played by Benoit Magimel) is a famed restaurateur in France, circa 1885. His secret weapon is his chef, Eugénie (Juliette Binoche), who may be the finest cook in the country.
Eugénie, for reasons known only to herself, never chose to exploit those gifts by going to Paris and becoming famous cooking for the crowned heads of Europe. She has enjoyed applying her gifts in Dodin’s kitchen, working with him on exquisite dishes and gently rebuffing his occasional marriage proposals. Sure, they would sometimes share nights of passion (this is France, after all), but their real romance was by the stove.
Writer-director Tran Anh Hung — a Vietnamese-born filmmaker who explored similar foodie pleasures in his 1993 film “The Scent of Green Papaya” — captures Eugénie at work one summer day, preparing a multi-course meal for Dodin and his gourmet colleagues. The colleagues are important, because it’s through their rapturous descriptions we understand how good Eugénie’s dishes are when we can’t taste them ourselves. They are so captivating to the eye, thanks to Tran’s direction and Jonathan Ricquebourg’s sumptuous cinematography, that we would be surprised if they didn’t hit the nose and tongue just as pleasingly.
The real action, though, is watching Eugénie working her magic. She knows exactly which pot to put on the stove, what vegetables should be chopped, and when to put in the roast. Sometimes, Dodin comes in to assist, and they move together like well-choreographed figure skaters, each one anticipating the other’s moves and matching them adeptly. When they speak, it’s usually to pass on information to Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), a 14-year-old girl who’s in training to be Eugénie’s assistant.
The chemistry between Binoche and Magimel is delicious. This is in part because Binoche could look lovingly and generously at a potted plant and you’d believe it to be true love. It may be also that the two actors were lovers a quarter-century ago — their relationship lasted five years, and produced a daughter, now 24. Whatever the formula, it works because the actors play characters who don’t talk about love as much as they show it, with every turning of the spatula and flick of the whisk.
“The Taste of Things” is a movie meant to make you fall in love — with the food, with the stars, with the French countryside — and it succeeds beautifully.
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‘The Taste of Things’
★★★1/2
Opens Wednesday, February 14, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Century 16 (South Salt Lake). Rated PG-13 for some sensuality, partial nudity and smoking. Running time: 135 minutes.