The popularity of movies that revolve around the pleasures of the table is nothing new. It has long been consecrated in Culinary Cinema sidebars at festivals from Berlin to San Sebastian, where the genre has found a home. Now Cannes brings a whopper directly to competition with the agreeable gourmet fable The Pot au Feu (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant). But as to why, one can only speculate. Apart from being almost unbearably French (the cuisine, the wines, the whole culture of describing cooking as an art form), it stars Juliette Binoche who launched the art house hit Chocolat back in 2000 and who, along with co-star Benoit Magimel and the film’s inspired, painterly settings, seem likely to enchant wider audiences than most festival entries can only hope for.
Though it sounds like an odd match at first, the Gaumont release could mark a comeback for much-decorated French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, whose first feature The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) won the Golden Camera in Cannes and whose second film, the tough, Saigon-set Cyclo (1995), won the Golden Lion in Venice. Having worked in a variety of genres, he seems very much at ease here in a French historical setting with its cultured hedonism and old-world sentiments, all delicately framed, lit and acted.
The setting is the glorious Loire Valley circa 1885, where the gentleman gourmet Dodin (Magimel) studies his menus while his cook of many years, Eugénie (Binoche), gathers herbs and vegetables from the chateau gardens. The connoisseurs of gastronomy who repair to his elegant dining room are local men – one, Rabaz (Emmanuel Salinger) is a doctor – who are his friends as well as his customers. (It is interesting that one never sees anything as vulgar as money change hands.) After a huge meal of incredible dishes, wines and liquors, they look flushed and cherubic as they describe the food in sensory and emotional terms.
But the real action is in the enormous country kitchen, where Eugénie, aided by Dodin and reserved young assistant Violette (Galatea Bellugi), prepares a dazzling array of consommés and sauces, veal ribs on a bed of braised lettuce and vol-au-vent, capped off by an astonishing Baked Alaska. The visiting gourmets treat Eugénie with enormous respect, and so does Dodin, who is deeply in love with her. Since most of his clever dialogue is about food, his courtship is reserved for a few off-duty moments as they relax by the river with more wine. Yet despite his regular visits to her room at night, she steadfastly refuses to marry him. One can see why he would persist: Binoche’s charm is mature but enormous, and she seems like his equal in putting tastes, smells and sensations into words. But when she feels dizzy over the stove one day, it’s a sign that change may be coming to the happy country restaurant. As the doctor says, Eugénie did not inherit strong health.
Magimel’s persistence in love (like his dedication to fine food) makes him an admirable character and makes his later devastation piercingly believable. In the meantime, luck plays into their hands when Violette brings her young niece Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoir) to the kitchen and it is discovered the girl is a natural gourmet — a Mozart of high cuisine waiting to be trained. This subplot is sweetly wrapped into the main story, aided by young Chagneau-Ravoir’s composure and her knowing expression as she sips the house sauce. (Dodin discovers her talent when she is able to name 17 out of the sauce’s 20-odd ingredients.)
Tran Anh’s elegantly written screenplay (the idea comes from a novel by Marcel Rouff) slips in an invitation to Dodin and his friends to dine with a “Eurasian prince” whose idea of throwing a splashy dinner party is a ten-foot menu that would make Babette’s feast look austere. After this gargantuan feed, which takes place offscreen, the group finds much to criticize, and Dodin plans to pay the prince back with a killer four-course meal whose highlight will be a simple country pot au feu. Eugénie judges it risky and audacious, but preparing the menu gives Dodin a new obsession to nurture.
This is one of those films where the “gastronomic manager” (3-star chef Pierre Gagnaire) gets billed above the producers in the credits. Certainly the food always looks mouth-watering and apparently it was really prepared fresh for the shoot. Jonathan Ricquebourg’s lighting emphasizes the sensory feeling of the characters with its soft colors and ancient light on Toma Baqueni’s exquisite period sets, whose centerpiece is, of course, the kitchen.
Director: Tran Anh Hung
Screenplay: Tran Anh Hung, inspired by a novel by Marcel Rouff
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Benoit Magimel, Emmanuel Salinger, Patrick D’Assumcao, Galatea Bellugi, Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire
Producers: Olivier Delbosc
Coproducers: Bastien Sirodot, Cédric Iland
Executive producer: Christine de Jekel
Cinematography: Jonathan Ricquebourg
Editing: Mario Battistel
Production design: Toma Baqueni
Art direction, costume design: Tran Nu Yen Khe
Gastronomic manager: Pierre Gagnaire
Sound: Francois Waledisch, Paul Heymans, Thomas Gauder
Production companies: Curiosa Films, Gaumont, France 2 Cinéma, Umedia
World Sales: Gaumont
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)
In French
134 minutes
