There are many layers to this movie, beneath the extravagant food pornography. As each piece of nigiri is placed on the plate, it seems to exhale as it settles, languid and glistening, beckoning the viewer's tongue and lips. Sigh.

Highly recommended, if you like that sort of thing. And from the X-rated photos that get posted here - or is it F-rated? - I think you do . . .

Which set me to thinking. What are some great movies about food, about cooking, about chefs? Fiction or documentary, all are welcome.

I have thought of "Woman On Top" with Penelope Cruz. I vaguely remember there was some cooking going on there, but something was distracting me. Another favorite here is "Ratatouille". The creator of that movie once told me about all the research meals his team had to eat in the great restaurants of Paris. Art is hard, I suppose.

Tops for movies that I love about restaurants and cooking are "Eat Drink Man Woman" and "Big Night".

It is a very interesting movie. It says a lot about the importance of other element about food, besides taste. After all, all good sushi tastes about the same. There is not much cooking or recipes involved with the making of sushi.

I agree, "eat drink man woman" is a nice movie. I actually learned a few cooking techniques from that movie.

dcarch

There were so many, varied kitchen skills and chopping vegetables was a minor act in this movie.

There is a great extra feature on the DVD of 'Bend it Like Beckham' in which the director, Gurinder Chadha, is cooking with her mother. It's funny in that this accomplished director, once in the kitchen with her mother, becomes like every daughter cooking with her mother--the mom says, 'No, you must do it this way...'--some things are universal.

The 1976 Brazilian movie 'Dona Flor and her Two Husbands' is based on Jorge Amado's novel--a hilarious romp about a young woman widowed by her wild-living party-animal husband. She marries again to a staid, sober (okay, dull) older man only to be then pestered by the ghost of her sexy first husband. The lead character, Dona Flor, is a cooking instructor, if I recall correctly. In the novel are a few recipes, and there is some cooking in the movie as well. Luscious food notwithstanding, I have to say the most delectable dish in the movie is the lovely Sonia Braga. Yum.

And if you're talking about food and cinema, no one who has seen 'Tom Jones' can forget the eating scene. "We are all as God has made us, and many of us much worse."

There is one of the rare Adam Sandler movies that I enjoyed where Sandler plays a chef that knows how to make the perfect sandwich. I don't remember the name of that movie, but I enjoyed it too, even though it was an Adam Sandler movie. It's another romantic comedy.

Obviously, I occasionally enjoy light, fluffy entertainment.

Sally

Highly recommended!
Teresa

One of my favorite scenes about friends cooking and sharing a meal is in The Big Chill.

Just last night I had my family here for dinner. Mom and I were doing the dishes and I was thinking about how cooking, eating a meal and doing the dishes is the very best way for people to bond.

I also thought of Tom Jones, but Arley beat me to it! I love it when the stem of a pear goes up his nose.

Oh yeah! Another favorite -- the dinner scene in Beetlejuice where the shrimp cocktail come to life.

Like Water Like Chocolate is interesting because it explains some Mexican food customs, although I do not remember that movie so well now. It is set in Mexico but was filmed in south Texas, which is very familiar to me, and so I can really tell the difference.

The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee) is a good movie and describes Chinese wedding conventions in an interesting way. I've never seen My Dinner with Andre, and so I don't know how much it is about food, but I do know that Dinner At Eight is all about the action before the dinner, and I think the movie ends when the dinner starts, but again I don't remember exactly.

Lars

I've seen several of the others: No Reservations (and Mostly Martha with Englich subtitles), Julie and Julia, The Big Chiill, and Like Water for Chocolate. I had a hard time watching the French "Chocolat" - just too dark for me. Ratatouille is always fun for a lighter movie and I also respect all the research that went into it.

I think I would also like Today's Special and will check Netflix for that. Weren't there a few Indian food scenes in Bend it Like Beckham?

We're due for a new food related movie, I'm looking forward to seeing Jiro Dreams of Sushi and will also look for Toast and The God of Cookery.

I love threads like this - thanks for starting it.

Lee

Along the lines of corny, I didn't hate "Ramen Girl" and lately it seems like "not hate" is about as good as it gets for me with movies.

Oddly, a movie about two chefs called "No Reservations" that was filled with cooking, left me uninspired. I guess true to form, I prefer movies about eating!!

The youtube clip, sadly, has audio out of with the action, but listen for her saying that.

Lars

Also "Sweeny Todd" (2007) and "Alive" (1993). Although, I guess the meat pies were baked, but there might have been some snacking during prep?

Julie and Julia - the Julia bits not the Julie bits - when Julia first arrives in France and is served Trout a la Meuniere and has an epiphany - starting her life-long love affair with French food and cooking.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

Tampopo

Chocolat - "It's not my favorite." "It's not my favorite." "It's not my favorite." Finally - "THIS is my favorite."

The top two without a doubt for me:

Big Night - I can't tell you how much I love Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub. Love, love, love them both.

And number one ----

Babette's Feast - a movie that explains without words how food and sensuality are intertwined and the marriage between them is a human necessity. How Babette brought joy to the utterly sense-starved, ascetic townsfolk and their bitter, frigid and abstinent lives, lifting them at least for one evening to a truer meaning of life than they had ever let themselves experience. That Babette gave up everything to "feed" them in this manner, to share her gifts, to thank them, to deliver a dream... still an astonishing film.

Jim

I'll have what she's having.

Highly recommended!
Teresa

I feel silly not remember that Tortilla Soup was the remake of Eat Drink....

Don't forget The Waitress, about pies. The only thing wrong with that movie is it's a man bashing movie, but it's fun any way. Makes you want to start making pies.

Sally

"Directed by Marco Ferreri. It stars Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret. The film tells the story of four friends who gather in a villa for the weekend for the express purpose of eating themselves to death."

"The film was somewhat controversial upon its original release with its scatological humour and comic depictions of sex and over-eating."

"vulgar vaudeville on an epic scale...a mordant, chilling, hilarious dirty movie"

You've been warned.

Jim