The Taste of Things (2023 | France | 134 minutes | Tran Ahn Hung)
Benoît Magimel is the Napoleon of French cuisine. Juliette Binoche is his cook, apprentice, and lover. Over twenty-plus years together, they’ve built an astonishing culinary and emotional partnership together at a stunning country estate. It’s the late 1800s in France, the Age of Escoffier is dawning, and the preparation, appreciation, and invention of food is serious business.
She prepares a sumptuous feast for him and his compatriots in gastronomy. He creates an ornate meal only for her. Over long uninterrupted hypnotic sequences, Tran Ahn Hung captures the care, grace, and dedication in the kitchen that transform food from simple sustenance to high art. With respect to Frederick Wiseman’s exceptional four hour documentary Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros and to Chad Stahelski’s “Sacre Coeur” stairway sequence, the year’s best action choreography and gourmet food photography were both in Tran Ann Hung’s extraordinary culinary turn-of-the-century romance.
A great appeal of The Taste of Things is that it contains what are among the most alluring cooking sequences ever committed to film. But Hung’s mesmerizing structure is much more than sensuous wallpaper for foodies. The camera’s adoration of the kitchen reflects the degree to which the couple’s deep commitment appreciating the pleasures of food reigns supreme. It speaks to their nuanced partnership, its limits, and a dance of autonomy versus consuming romance. In the spaces between feasts, there’s a wondrous realm of human connections.
The plot is light, the dialogue is sparse, life goes on. That’s the whole movie. C’est magnifique!
The Taste of Things arrives in Seattle theaters on February 14. Portions of this review appeared as part of our coverage of the Telluride Film Festival. Header image courtesy IFC.