Don’t walk into “The Taste of Things” hungry, because you’ll be bolting out midway through the film to devour the entire concessions stand. The film (directed and written by Trần Anh Hùng) is based on the novel “The Passionate Epicure: La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet” by Marcel Rouff, whose lead character Dodin-Bouffant is a roguish gourmet chef equally adept at food and love.
Dodin’s passion for food is on full display throughout, but the romantic side of the film is frustratingly kept at a low simmer. Dodin Bouffant (played by Benoît Magimel), though a renowned gourmet chef, employs Eugénie (Juliette Binoche), a cook who matches Dodin’s skills and who Dodin has fallen in love with over time, the duo having spent 20 years together.
A Film All About Food
You know a film is going to be all about food when the characters are eating breakfast while simultaneously preparing another, far bigger meal to serve to guests later. That’s what happens in the first 15 minutes, which is a flurry of clanging pots, crackling flames, sizzling beef and steaming vegetables.
The sequence is dazzling. Dodin, Eugénie, Dodin’s live-in maid Violette (Galatéa Bellugi) and Violette’s visiting niece Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) prepare several dishes, crossing paths, pulling out massive pots and pans, cutting and stirring, at moments threatening to collide with each other in a disaster of splashed boiling water or a shower of perfectly chopped onions. But instead of chaos it’s a harmony of movement, a culinary ballet of sorts. And as the camera swoops in on every morsel, you can practically smell all those garden fresh vegetables, salted meats and fragrant spices wafting from the screen.
Pierre Gagnaire in a scene from “The Taste of Things.” (Stéphanie Branchu/IFC Films via AP).
After the dynamics of this scene, the film settles into Dodin’s daily life, a life he tries to keep low-key, enjoying meals and socializing with his four close friends by day and at night knocking on Eugénie’s bedroom door, hoping she’ll ask him in so they can spend the night together.
Commenting on a Marriage of Convenience
The scenes between Dodin and Eugénie are the weakest part of the film. The two seem to be in love, but it’s a love of convenience. Both of them are in what Eugénie calls “The Autumn of their years” and they’ve lived together so long, why not be in love just to stave off loneliness?
Where’s the passion between them? If the two showed as much fire towards each other as they do for the meals they prepare, the film would have truly been magical. Instead, their interactions always seem cold and business-like. Even when Dodin asks Eugénie to marry him (which he apparently has done numerous times previously), it’s like he’s asking Eugénie to join him on a trip to the grocery store rather than to be his wife.
Ultimately Comes up Short
Juliette Binoche in “The Taste of Things.” (Photo: (Photo: Curiosa Films).
The movie just didn’t captivate me after that first 15 minutes. I feel 30 minutes (at least) should have been trimmed from the film. There wasn’t enough story to justify that excruciating run-time. It was basically porn for foodies, lethargic scenes that drive the story along abruptly switching to flashy scenes of Dodin and/or Eugénie cooking, and those cooking sequences were wonderful. I would have loved more backstory on Dodin and Eugénie, how they first met and what excites them (other than food, of course). We learn very little about them throughout the film.
Ultimately, “The Taste of Things” offers no food for the soul, but it’ll sure make you want to head to the nearest restaurant once it’s over.
Currently, “The Taste of Things” is only playing in theaters.
