Here is a beautifully shot movie from that estimable film-maker Tran Anh Hung – but it’s in a genre about which I am agnostic, the “foodie” vein, in which we are supposed to swoon over all the endless gastronomic detail and mouthwatering fare, and in which food tends to be somewhat glibly presented as a metaphor for sharing, for family and for friendship. (A recent conversation with a friend ended with him saying “foodie” films are no worse than the “filmie” films I roll over for, with their endless love-letter-to-the-cinema shots of the projector beams in the darkness and well-loved movie theatres poignantly closing after 80 years etc. Fair enough: chacun à son goût.)
The Pot-au-Feu, starring Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche, set in the Belle Époque, is adapted by the director from the 1924 novel The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet by the author, gourmand and boulevardier Marcel Rouff. Magimel plays Dodin, a passionate gourmet living in some style, partly based on the legendary real-life gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin. Dodin is not running a restaurant – he’s just rich enough to do nothing all day but think about and eat top-quality food, and is looking pretty svelte on it.
