By Robert St. Martin
Los Angeles, California (The Hollywood Times) 12/202/2023
At the Laemmle Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles has been a screening of Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things, based on Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet and set during the Belle Epoque in France. This may seem like an overly long film made for foodies and to some extent it certainly is that. The film tells the story of Dodin (Benoît Magimel), a wealthy man who appears to do little more in his life than contemplate and consume elaborate meals that he then proceeds to consume with gusto, often in the company of a group of like-minded male friends.
He is aided in these gastronomic adventures by his cook of 20 years, Eugenie (Juliette Binoche), who shares with him a preternatural feel for food and a willingness to spend each day utilizing a grocery cart’s worth of ingredients to make one sauce. He would like to marry her, but she demurs, though not for any reasons that she or the film is willing to articulate.
Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung (who also penned the screenplay) stretches things out to a running time of just under 2 1/2 hours, a large chunk of it devoted to endless scenes of the preparation and consumption of these elaborate meals. At least the food – all lovingly presented by cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg – is memorable, which is more than can be said for the central characters. Binoche and Magimel are two of the biggest names in current French cinema, but they barely seem to register here, thanks to the nonentities that they have been asked to play.
France’s Oscar committee had elected to choose Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things as its representative in this year’s race for the Best International Feature Film prize. This came as a surprise to many observers since another film that was in the running, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, had already won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and, therefore, seemed to have the inside track for the honor. The real shock, however, is how a movie like this managed to get into the running in the first place.
During the first half of The Taste of Things (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant), I wondered if what was brewing on screen was perhaps a joke. Can you really send a film to Cannes where the basic ingredient is visualizing and salivating over French recipes of the 19th century? The answer is yes, provided you get two of the biggest names in French cinema, Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, you can get away with a lot. Or in this case, with not much at all. I will concede that it was charming to see in detail a chateau’s late 19th century kitchen and all the tools used for food preparation. Years ago, I was a guest in an 18th century French chateau near Poitiers and the kitchen is this film seemed remarkably similar.
The excuse for a plot here comes in the shape of a glutted romantic drama set in the early 20th century about a renowned chef called Dodin Bouffant, played by Benoit Magimel who is trying to get his cook of twenty years Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) to marry him. They live in a chateau and seem to spend the majority of their time cooking despairingly intricate French recipes – it takes 20 ingredients to make a sauce, and apparently one boils, then freezes, then bakes lettuce over here.
Disconcertingly, the majority of screen time is also spent re-enacting these delusionally complex recipes and the so-called plot is practically thrown under the bus. If the film-maker had initially intended to make a drama, the storyline must have gotten waylaid in a thickset recipe book. It is hard to objectively judge the performances of Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in this undercooked romance. We know they are among the best French actors, we know they are a former real life couple, we badly want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, it is difficult to fathom what the thought process was when these supremely experienced actors signed up for these roles in the first place.
In their defense, they do seem fairly invested in this film, especially Magimel. Binoche is more of a wallflower, presumably because of her character’s status as a servant. Dodin and Eugénie are played by Magimel and Binoche, who were married from 1998 until 2003, are still friends and share a daughter. The ex-couple sparkler when on screen together, and the years of intimacy with ups and downs between the two character they play are instantly believable. Their share love for food and friendship for each other feel real.
At the end of the day, both characters are devoid of any depth or dramatic drive – other than a shared love of cooking, that completely overpowers the bland romance flickering in the background. The viewer is so cloyed with all the food frolicking going on that there is hardly any room left for engaging with the paltry love story. It is immaterial whether or not she will accept his marriage proposal, and he is as expressive in his grief when she dies as he would be if his crème fraiche had gone off.
There is charm and delicacy here and Magimel and Binoche perform impeccably, though I wasn’t entirely sure they go together as the ingredients of a love story. As a foodie film, it has a great deal to recommend it and some viewers will find it engaging, though perhaps to cineastes, it will seem more like a Dr Jekyll to the Mr. Hyde of Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe (1973).
