The Taste of Things

Quite obviously, film is an awesome workout for our sight and sound. What we don’t often see is the cinema give us a test of our tastebuds.

There’s been an uptick of food-based TV recently, headlined by The Bear and Boiling Point, and Tran Anh Hung’s new film The Taste of Things takes that into the cinema with something to get you salivating.

This is an exercise in mouth watering; rather than the drama of the professional kitchen that the former focus on this film follows a few months in the relationship of a cook working in the estate of a celebrated gourmet in rural France in the late 18th century.

It doesn’t sound the most riveting of concepts but it’s almost a sensory experience just watching Chef Eugenie (a brilliant Juliette Binoche) work as she prepares a meal. The lengthy opening sequence entirely consists of this and it’s such a unique cinematic sight: the care and deliberation coupled with the sun dappled shots and natural sounds have a meditative effect.

There isn’t really a plot to speak of. We learn more of Eugenie and Dodin’s relationship as they look to take on an apprentice and dine with friends respectively but the film is more about establishing feelings through food. How this essential act, when presented in the right way, can be as effective as words or sounds.

It works brilliantly as a descriptor of the central couple but less so when Eugenie is not present. Scenes of Dodin and his friends can feel superfluous and a little out of touch but are still interesting depictions of a long gone era.

However, when we’re with Eugenie or Dodin in the kitchen and watching them meticulously create a dish, the experience is a unique one in cinema. Relaxing, absorbing and enough to incite ravenous hunger. It won’t be to all tastes but The Taste of Things is a filling experience.

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