Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel star in director Trân Anh Hùng’s sublime delicacy.
My culinary skills extend to opening a can of beans, but I found myself easily enraptured by director Trân Anh Hùng’s delicate, gentle, yet invigorating and welcoming drama.
Because the beguiling Juliette Binoche is the star, it’s tempting to fall under her spell as she displays her artistic skills in the kitchen of Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), himself an acclaimed chef in late 19th-century France. Binoche plays Eugénie, who is Dodin’s personal cook.
Her culinary skills surpass his mastery of cuisine, though she is modest about it and downplays her own talents, resisting someone’s description of her as an ‘artist.’ That’s what she is, though, sculpting with meats and vegetables, painting with herbs and sauces, cooking up elaborate meals after a day spent devising ever more grand and indulgent dishes with Dodin in his country manor, and serving them to his well-heeled friends.
Dodin and Eugénie have lived together for 20 years and are closer than many married couples, even though she persists in declining his repeated offers of marriage. She wants to maintain her independence. She talks about the nights when she leaves the door to her room unlocked and open to him, while also reserving the right to lock her door when she wishes.
Eugénie is content to be Dodin’s cook, rather than his wife; she is happy with their arrangement and sees no reason to change it. Their relationship is comfortable, loving, occasionally physically intimate, yet more a very close friendship than anything else.
Dodin employs Violette (Galatéa Bellugi) as a kitchen helper for Eugénie. One day, the young woman brings along a cousin, the even younger Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), a budding gourmet who wants to be Dodin’s apprentice. With Eugénie’s consent, the girl becomes her apprentice instead.
The marvelous meals are filmed with loving attention by director Trân Anh Hùng, who captures their preparation in a graceful style, the camera often following Eugénie and Dodin as they consider what to cook and make preparation for grand meals that consume all their days together, with an emphasis on taste. It’s notable, for example, that Dodin notes that, however helpful Violette is in their household, it’s Pauline who already displays a keen sense of taste, which makes him willing to teach and train her, and encourage the more-than-willing Eugénie to do the same.
Early in the film, however, Eugénie weakens in the kitchen and almost faints, for reasons that are not known. The fainting spells become more frequent, to the mystification of Dodin and Eugénie and one of their friends and usual guest, a medical doctor.
It’s easy to anticipate that this issue will become more urgent and pertinent to the story as time progresses. It’s equally true that the film’s primary focus remains on the focus, and the taste of it, and how much difference that makes to life itself.
Dodin and Eugénie enjoy a great love. Even more than that, they share a taste for wonderful food, which is, really, the great theme and driving force of the film. Love is good, but great food is forever.
The film is now playing in select area theaters. For more information about the film, visit the official site.
Dallas Film Now. 