The Taste Of Things - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

For myself, I love me a great cooking show, like Masterchef or The Great British Baking Show, but it has to be about the cooking and culinary creations. When those shows go to the dramatic and focus on the people and not the food, like Hell’s Kitchen for example, I lose interest. Although watching Gordon Ramsey going off and chew some ass is plenty amusing on occasion! But a new foreign language film that’s being distributed by IFC here in the U.S. and is the submission by France for the Oscars is called The Taste Of Things. Almost the entirety of this first act would be what some people consider as “food porn”. We watch a couple that’s in love with each other and passionate about food working in a kitchen in the early 1900’s, from my best estimate. Juliette Binoche stars in the film and is truly magnificent. I’ve seen some great lead actress performances this year from Emma Stone, Natalie Portman and Lily Gladstone, but Binoche was my favorite of them all. There’s a reason why France chose this film over the exceptional Anatomy Of A Fall for its Oscar submission. With so many of the movies dropping lately being on the sadder side, while this movie does have some sadness, by and large the heartwarming love story at the center is a nice change of pace. When this film becomes available to watch near you, go ahead and try a bite of The Taste Of Things.

SYNOPSIS - This delectable delight of a film starts with a shot of Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) in her garden, we initially get a close up of her face, then another that shows us she’s bent down picking vegetables. It appears to be the early morning, she pulls a carrot from the ground and after scraping the dirt off and cleaning it a bit, takes a bite with an audible crunching sound. She continues to fill the vegetable basket she’s holding over her arm, adding a head of lettuce to the variety of other greens it contains before heading back inside. As we cut to the inside of the residence building, we watch Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel) who is the head chef and grandmaster of the home, coming downstairs in his robe to prepare for the day. He inquires with one of the girls that works there about drawing a bath for him. In the kitchen, which is where spend a good portion of our time, we begin getting our first shot compositions of the food, we see eggs boiling on the stove, then a camera pan-over shot of a table covered in beautiful vegetables of all kinds. This is just a taste, if you will, as we get so many more shots of the food being prepared as the story continues. We observe from outside a doorway as Dodin leans over the edge of his bath and moves his head up ever so slightly, as if he’s gotten a whiff of a scent coming from downstairs. After a few more food shots, crayfish being boiled and some large fish being placed in a pot, we watch Eugénie holding a frying pan containing what appears to be an egg soufflé and she serves it to Dodin, he immediately reaches his fork in and produces a bite.

What this place is, it seems to be a very large home and estate with a very elaborate kitchen setup, but it’s never fully explained if it’s a culinary school, manor or private residence, we are never told. Although that’s not really the point. We spend most of our time in the open air kitchen, the sun is shining in and the birds are chirping, sometimes so loudly I wondered if the birds were actually inside the room with them. But we’re there to watch Eugénie and Dodin and two other younger girls that are something of assistants/apprentices of the culinary arts, they help and learn the techniques of this couple’s elevated cooking. Dodin is the homeowner, they are not married but Eugénie lives there, she has her own room that’s in a separate part of the residence. But these two have a connection, a love and bond that goes deeper than just their love and joy of food and cooking, and we’re just here to observe it all. And it all just makes you smile. Through almost the entirety of the first act, we’re allowed to revel in this pair’s relationship dynamics, their cooking, the food, the atmosphere, it’s all just soothing to the soul. But upon entering the second act, the love story takes center stage, we begin to understand more of their history and why these two have not taken the vows for one another. But when Eugénie begins to experience some dizziness and even has some fainting spells, we know that there’s something brewing behind the scenes that may take the film in a direction that our hearts yearn for it not to go.

It must be said first and foremost, this film is gorgeous. So many of the shot compositions are stunning. Not only of the food and its preparation, but also of the two main protagonists and their time together. Sometimes outside in their garden and other times walking together in the surrounding fields. The camera work is amazing and has such a nice to look to it, but the look of The Taste Of Things is only one aspect that gives this film the tone that it’s able to capture. The sound design is immaculate, we listen to all the noises of the food being prepared along with the aforementioned sounds of nature outside and a sort of peaceful almost trance like state is obtained through some of the first half. It’s intoxicating. I attribute most of this rare feat to the direction of the film by the Vietnamese director Anh Hung Tran, whose 1993 film The Scent Of Green Papaya was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. But the final piece of this dish of tranquility is found in the central performances of  Magimel and Binoche, especially Binoche. The way she looks at the food, the way she looks at him, the gentle and serene way she speaks, I was utterly mesmerized by her every moment onscreen. And these two have such fantastic chemistry, if they ever made a TV show with just these two actors cooking together in this kitchen, I’d tune in every week just for the vibes they exude. Trust me when I say this movie, even with it’s lower points, makes joy fill my heart when I think of it and is a cinematic experience to seek out when it becomes available to watch near you.

SUMMARY - While this film is in spoken French, most of what makes this film special is not in the dialogue. Critics and foodies especially, but general audiences too will find delight in the two stars of the film, their love of and passion for their food and each other. These Things will be something you definitely enjoy The Taste Of.