Food In Film – Four of Susan Stitt’s Favourites

15 August 2013

Just us … a casual dinner at home … no biggie. Jason Schwartzman and Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette

Food in cinema would have to be my favourite subject (other than my children of course). It could have something to do with being a cinematographer and chef, so it’s personal for me. The lines are blurred between the two now. I shoot food, I blog food, I am food. It occupies a great deal of space in my life.

I was the non-sporty kid that spent Saturdays baking and watching old Hollywood movies. Everyone was playing outside and I was getting the science of vanilla cinnamon teacake down, and flicking channels to choose between Mickey Rooney movies and something western. I ate cake to Frank crooning, and Dean and Jerry harmonising. It probably wasn’t very cool in those days and a little geeky but now looking back it’s all I have ever done. When I am not cooking I am shooting. Weird.

It is difficult to choose what films to discuss when considering food in film. It’s like a buffet and you have to pick a few tasty morsels. They are all varied and fascinating. Like music, food and films transport us to places we may never go, or to places once seen, or they speak for us in emotional times. So it is a decision not lightly taken.

Okay…here is my list….

Marie Antoinette I love because it highlights the food of Careme, the first ever celebrity chef. Big towers of asparagus, whole birds, aspics, amazing cakes, largesse, excess. The director, Sophia Coppola was genius in hooking into history but also delving into the future, juxtaposing the two in an edgy, emotional aesthetic. The film fuses the modern with the French court theme by making the food so big but so real (there are great montages of cake eating) and by mixing scenes of youthful play, parties, punk, rock, confidence, insecurity and love.

The styling in Marie Antoinette and the director’s attention to detail is fascinating. I wanted to be there, to be her, eating pastel cakes. Sophia Coppola always gets youth naiveté, portraying it with intricacy and depth. When Marie Antoinette settles into her role of Majesty the opulence goes beyond what we know, but it is fun and beautifully executed, the food transcends this with the immortal line ‘Let them eat cake’.

Le Grand Bouffe (an over the top story of four men: a chef, a pilot, a television producer and a very dodgy lawyer who go to a large house and have an extreme time cooking, eating and other things questionable) was a first date film for me with a charming English gentleman, both of us in full-on Mod clothes. I was taken aback that the characters ate themselves to death but the food in the movie is so incredible, it is a delicious and dark romp in the kitchen.

The film is a story of bourgeois self-indulgence, very 70’s and very French and a bit sexy, starring the gorgeous and handsome Marcello Mastroianni. People are eating all the time. To their ultimate fate, unfortunately. The food they prepare and serve and eat is mind-boggling (how can they eat another bite?), with one of my favourite scenes involving the eating of oysters whilst watching a slide show of old black and white pictures of naked women.

No one can write about foodie films without including Eat Drink Man Woman, Ang Lee’s seminal movie of love, sex and food, his theory on man’s basic desires. From the opening scenes I am in love with what I am seeing. The most stunning montage of food and preparation. Smart and quick, it is impossible not to watch for the extraordinary scenes of food in action. Master chef Chu is a widower with three daughters. He’s cooking throughout the whole movie and we see the most gorgeous Chinese food I have ever seen in cinema.

The film tells of the old man’s diminishing taste buds and the girls’ love stories. The food and the memories that come with family are beautifully woven into the film’s scenarios of love and conflict between the girls and their father and you are transfixed by the excellence of the directing and the simply mesmerising food. There is a beautiful rhythm to this film. Keep watching: there’s also a twist.

I had to include Julie & Julia because it’s a little bit me. I would cook the whole of Julia Child’s cookbook if I had a moment spare, so I take my hat off to Amy Adams’ character who does. It also sets out the beginning of blogging, which is fascinating. Set between 1949 in Paris and modern day America (well, Queens NYC 2002) we traverse between the two culinary worlds. Plus, any Meryl Streep movie works for me. She is so good at her craft that I am in awe. Her performance and its nuances I feel match the food and the respect the film gives it. I also like her character’s drive; in fact, both characters, Meryl Streep’s Julia and Amy Adams’s Julie have to kick start a career, Julia when she’s older, and they both give it a go and succeed so well from it.

And lastly, I love the food. I adhere to an ethic of simplicity in the food I cook and I feel connected to the food in Julie & Julia and the energy that the film’s focus on it creates. It is a film that shows dedication to food and its joys and I connect to that wholeheartedly.

It is difficult for me to end my list there. There are so many wonderful films in which food is an important element or metaphor. Everything revolves around food in my house. It is our language of love. It quells my beast and delivers comfort and support to my large life. It brings my teenage children to the table. It is how we connect and how I understand them. It is when they tell me everything and it brings me into their confidence. My 14-year-old son told me the other day that he wants to be a chef, my 18-year-old, a cinematographer or director…

What are your favourite foodie films?