Why Does Food Taste So Good In Films?

There is something visceral and powerful about the representation of food in films.

I have just watched Julie And Julia, starring the impressive Meryl Streep in yet another amazing role, this time as the woman that changed the way in which Americans feel about food.

It is strangely resonant for me, because a principal structural feature of the film is the way in which Julie in the present day (or close to it) sets herself the challenge of working her way through the entire contents of the cookbook written by Julia in the 1950s, and which introduces for the first time an American audience to the gastronomic joy of French cooking in English.

She sets out to do this within a calendar year, which is no mean feat since there are about 450 recipes to cook and eat.

As an aspiring writer herself, she decides to write a blog about her experience of working through this important book. At the same time as she is a government clerk.

There are few films which are solely about food, but many films in which food or eating play an important part. Sometimes surreal, but always interesting.

Perhaps one of the strangest is in one of my favourite modern films, The Lake House. Separated by two years, the protagonists arrange to meet in a restaurant that is so popular that you must book at least one year ahead.

The character in the present makes the booking, and says that she will meet the other character, two years behind her, at the restaurant on the following night. She turns up, and indeed the booking had been made, but the man she is in love with across time fails to show.

She enjoys the meal, and learns that something has prevented her time distorted lover from attending.

In Pretty Woman, Edward the millionaire businessman takes his street-walking employee as his date for an important business meeting, and Julia Roberts has to learn rather quickly how to identify the different types of cutlery she might be presented with. Slippery little suckers, snails, when eaten for the first time.

Babette's Feast is perhaps one of the few other films in which food plays a crucial central role. The plot is simple, but extraordinary. One of the finest French female chefs escapes revolutionary France by living as the servant to a couple of poor, highly religious sisters on a remote island just off the Danish coast.

The austere life of the sisters is suddenly transformed by the  culinary capacities of their new cook, who has been trained in some of the most important kitchens in France.

When she suddenly wins a small fortune in some obscure late 18th century lottery, she repays the kindness that has been shown to her by her austere mistresses, by cooking the most tremendous feast.

It so happens that on this remote island at that time is a French officer that has dined in some of those extraordinary places in which the cook has learned her trade.

It is a dinner to remember, one that has never been seen the like of it in this remote and religiously austere place.

The other unusual feast that comes to mind is in a film that I saw when I was still a student in London, perhaps 30 years ago.

I recently tried to obtain a copy of the film, but it is no longer available, and even a second-hand copy from Amazon would cost around $60. A new copy would cost $140, so rare are copies of the DVD, which is no longer in stock by any retailers in this country or America.

I would like to obtain a copy of the film, the details of which I can only dimly remember.

Clearly it is a film connoisseurs product, if one can be obtained at all.

It is in Swedish and subtitled, and is entitled Montenegro.

It was the first time I ever heard Marianne Faithful sing The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, which features in the film. As it also features later of course in Thelma And Louise.

The director of the film is apparently rather well-known for having created a film that makes up the rules of film-making as the film progresses. Needless to say, it is a rarity worth watching, especially for the role that food plays in it. Which I will not reveal here. Just in case anyone should be lucky enough to see the film.

Another film starring Meryl Streep and some lobsters is The Hours, and sadly the buffet prepared in this part of the film is never eaten. Once again, a film well worth watching.

I'm sure we will all have our memories of moments in film when food plays a significant part. It is strange that food in films should always taste so good.