Cover of Waitress (Widescreen Edition)
English: Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz Hammel-Smith give the thumbs-ups to Nancy Kwan at the Hawaii International Film Festival on October 20, 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Roger Ebert, american film critic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cover via Amazon
Cover via Amazon
The untimely passing of beloved film critic and author Roger Ebert, has me thinking about movies a lot lately. And courage, and reinvention. Roger did all that. He entertained us for decades with his perspectives on why film is important in our culture; how it illustrates and defines us. Even while square in the path of the most debilitating of cancers, he never gave up on his gift and his art to the millions that listened. When he could no longer speak, he reinvented himself as a renowned blogger. It is said that he loved food; indeed his portly appearance in those days of health subjected him to many jokes. For those of us that adore food, no longer being able to eat and drink would be the end.
But Roger Ebert loved life, food, drink and the movies. This post and following excerpt is dedicated to him.
Remember this iconic food scene?
Setup: When Oscar Madison has had quite enough of Felix Unger’s persnickety ways in The Odd Couple (1968).
Oscar: Now, kindly remove that spaghetti off my poker table.
Felix: (shaking his head and chuckling sarcastically.)
Oscar: What the hell’s so funny?
The Odd Couple (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Felix: (Still chuckling) It is not spaghetti. It’s linguine.
(Oscar picks up the plate of linguine, stomps into the kitchen, then hurls the dish like a javelin where it smashes against the wall over the kitchen sink leaving red smears of sauce and tangled strands hanging limply over the light fixture. He turns back to snarl at Felix.)
Oscar: Now… it’s garbage!
(Dialogue courtesy of IMDB.com)
The subject of food does not often enjoy a supporting role in film. This is curious, since it is required sustenance for survival, as much as water, shelter, money and…love. Even with our long culture of film making, there are only a relative handful of “food” movies, where the idea of food and the enjoyment of it actually plays a role in the story. More often, scenes involving food are circumstantial, or worse, even designed to horrify (remember: the putrifed dead rat entree that Bette Davis serves to Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
Occasionally scenes of delicious food being prepared will revolve around a brief shot, or a character’s inspired description, or an opening sequence.
My decades-long love and research of food in movies has turned up some nominees in all categories:
Brief Shots
Moonstruck (1987). Olympia Dukakis in her bathrobe frying Eggs-in-a-Hole in bubbling butter while standing in her big, airy kitchen.
Boogie Nights (1997). Features a tantalizing five-second scene of link sausages sizzling in a black skillet, eggs frying and bubbling coffee being poured…just before a terrible argument erupts between Mark Walhberg and his bitter, angry mother.
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993). This Vietnamese indie film features a few gorgeous seconds of a colorful stir-fry dish as it is prepared in an ancient wok as a young girl squats on her haunches and learns.
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). When Jessica Tandy samples the treat by the same name that Kathy Bates has brought to her in the nursing home, her head tilts back, her eyes close and the decades melt away from her sculptured features as, Proustian-like, the past comes flooding back into her memory.
The Help (2011) You can actually hear the delicious crunch as Jessica Chastain bites into the perfectly fried chicken prepared by Octavia Spencer (“Fryin’ chicken just tend to make you feel better about life.“).
Descriptions by Characters
The Godfather (1971) In the all-too-brief scene where Clemenza (Richard Castellano) instructs Michael (Al Pacino) in the proper preparation of sauce for spaghetti, he tosses in plump sausages, peppers, onions, enormous meatballs and a generous splash of red jug wine, and we start salivating.
Tequila Sunrise (1988). Michelle Pfeiffer‘s slow, seductive description of Rigatoni Quattro Formaggi (“...a creamy blend of four Italian cheeses: fontina…taleggio…gorgonzola… and parmigiano reggiano….” ) may just be better than sex…
Waitress (2007) Keri Russell’s pie-making musings in her head are displayed for us in glorious step-by-step, tutorial detail and after viewing this film, you will never look a slice of pie again in the same way (“I was just inventin’ a pie in my head…”).
Next post: Beautiful opening sequences, movies with food as the central focus and food used for gross-out effect.
Friends, what are your favorite food movies? Would love to hear from you!
Much love,
Almandine Bleu
The Scent of Green Papaya (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lobster & Champagne 