Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in The Taste Of Things. Binoche on working with her former real-life partner: 'There were shared emotions, and we found again the happiness of just being together' Photo: Stephanie Branchu It wasn’t an obvious dream ticket to pair Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel together for costume film The Taste Of Things, which is set in the world of gastronomy. Although they share a daughter they hadn’t had much contact since they split up some two decades previously. The last time they had worked together was on the romantic drama Children Of The Century in 1999.
The French-Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng who won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or for his first feature The Scent of the Green Papya in 1993, decided to risk it for his adaptation of Marcel Rouff’s novel La Vie et la Passion de Dodin Bouffant.
Binoche was...
The French-Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng who won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or for his first feature The Scent of the Green Papya in 1993, decided to risk it for his adaptation of Marcel Rouff’s novel La Vie et la Passion de Dodin Bouffant.
Binoche was...
- 2/11/2024
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Movies are designed to dazzle through sound and vision. That leaves three out of five senses untapped, at least until cinema reaches its inevitable maximum-immersive “feelie” stage. The Taste of Things, the latest from the French-Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, is one of those rare works that gives you the illusion of engaging much more than just your eyes and ears. “Sensuous” is too mild an adjective to describe the way that this drama films, focuses on, and fetishizes the food that the occupants of a 19th century kitchen in...
- 2/9/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Juliette Binoche has impeccable taste. The French actress, who has been gracing the screen for over four decades, continues to work with directors that push the envelope regardless of budget, recognition, or box office. From Claire Denis to Olivier Assayas, Abbas Kiarostami to Leos Carax, the list goes on and on. Her eye for world cinema rarely falters, and her filmography ranges across a wide swath of genres. The most common aspect of all of these films: critical praise for Binoche’s performance, whatever it may be.
In her newest, Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things, Binoche’s first collaboration with the Vietnamese-born director, she plays Eugénie, a chef for a famous restaurant owner, Dodin. A sensual film, featuring lengthy cooking sequences that grasp one’s attention far more than many action set pieces in today’s age, the story follows Eugénie and Dodin’s relationship through food,...
In her newest, Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things, Binoche’s first collaboration with the Vietnamese-born director, she plays Eugénie, a chef for a famous restaurant owner, Dodin. A sensual film, featuring lengthy cooking sequences that grasp one’s attention far more than many action set pieces in today’s age, the story follows Eugénie and Dodin’s relationship through food,...
- 2/6/2024
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
A special screening for “The Taste of Things,” France’s entry for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, was held Friday, January 5 at The Crescent in Beverly Hills. Afterwards, director Tran Anh Hung and Oscar winner Juliette Binoche joined moderator David Canfield (“Variety”) for a Q&a to discuss the film in front of the packed theater. Watch the full discussion above.
Set in France in the late 19th century, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel) as the preeminent chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie (Binoche). Eugénie and Dodin share a long history of gastronomy and love. While emotions remain contained, the culinary discoveries are, on the other hand, breathtakingly exquisite. The only hitch is that Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin. So, the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
“The Taste of Things...
Set in France in the late 19th century, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel) as the preeminent chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie (Binoche). Eugénie and Dodin share a long history of gastronomy and love. While emotions remain contained, the culinary discoveries are, on the other hand, breathtakingly exquisite. The only hitch is that Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin. So, the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
“The Taste of Things...
- 1/7/2024
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The Taste of Things.How do you solve a riddle like Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things? Revolving around the professional and romantic companionship between a master chef and his faithful cook, the feature, which won the Vietnamese-French filmmaker the Best Director award at Cannes, enjoys largely rapturous reviews in international press, yet its critical reception in France is much more divisive. Dismissed by publications such as Le Monde, Libération, and Cahiers du cinéma as a “bourgeois” and “old-fashioned” effort, Taste was simultaneously embraced by the right-wing outlet Causeur, which exalts the meat-centric feature as a return to tradition, and a slap in the face to the quinoa-eating, so-called “woke” crowd. To be selected over Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and other shortlisted nominees as France’s official submission to the Oscars was yet another sin. Months before its cinema release, Taste received an extraordinary amount...
- 1/3/2024
- MUBI
The smell of the chocolate chip cookies is intoxicating. Juliette Binoche eats several as we talk at the London Hotel about the experience of shooting Anh Hung Tran’s celebration of sumptuous cooking, “The Taste of Things”, which won the Best Director award at Cannes and beat out “Anatomy of a Fall” to become France’s official Oscar submission. Binoche scoffs at the suggestion that the 19th-century romance about Eugénie (Binoche), who cooks for gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel), is in any way stuffy or conventional.
“It is showing this lifestyle that is different from nowadays,” she said. “It has to do with another rhythm, a slow motion in the way of living, taking in the environment, taking in feelings, taking in what you do. I don’t live this kind of life, and a lot of people don’t. And this film is very provocative. It looks like she is submissive to him,...
“It is showing this lifestyle that is different from nowadays,” she said. “It has to do with another rhythm, a slow motion in the way of living, taking in the environment, taking in feelings, taking in what you do. I don’t live this kind of life, and a lot of people don’t. And this film is very provocative. It looks like she is submissive to him,...
- 12/9/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
At first sight, the film the French chose to represent them at the Oscars next year couldn’t be any more French. A chaste romantic drama starring Juliette Binoche as Eugénie, an unsung, genius-level private chef, The Taste of Things takes place in the kitchen at the sprawling rustic home of the famous restauranteur Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), and features every culinary delight known to mankind. Food is braised, broiled, blanched, poached and sautéed, in carefully curated banquets that can take anything up to a waistline-busting 24 hours. Needless to say, audiences at the Cannes film festival savored every bite.
Binoche says she got the script simply because she knew the producer. But the reason she decided to make it was the director, Trần Anh Hùng, the Vietnamese-born auteur who first made his name with The Scent of Green Papaya in 1993.
“I knew Hùng a little bit because he came on...
Binoche says she got the script simply because she knew the producer. But the reason she decided to make it was the director, Trần Anh Hùng, the Vietnamese-born auteur who first made his name with The Scent of Green Papaya in 1993.
“I knew Hùng a little bit because he came on...
- 12/7/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
"It takes culture and memory to shape one's taste." Gaumont in France has revealed the first official French trailer for the highly acclaimed food film known as La Passion de Dodin Bouffant. And yes, the trailer has English subtitles so everyone can enjoy it. "The Passion of Dodin Bouffant", as it is known in French, also has two other English titles: The Pot au Feu and/or The Taste of Things (it's the official US release title to look for). It premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, including my own, already proclaiming it as one of the best food films ever made. Juliette Binoche stars as Eugénie, an outstanding cook, who has worked for the famous gastronome Dodin Bouffant (as played by Benoît Magimel) for 20 years. However, Eugénie, eager for her own freedom, has never wanted to marry Dodin. So Dodin decides to do something he's never done before: cook for her.
- 9/15/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The French drama “The Pot-au-Feu,” one of the breakout hits at the Cannes Film Festival and one of the movies that could represent France at the Academy Awards, has received a new title, Variety has learned exclusively.
Now under its new title — “The Taste of Things” – the movie will also have a qualifying run to be considered in all general categories, including best picture.
Starring Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”) and Cesar winner Benoît Magime (“Pacification”), the movie received critical acclaim after its premiere, winning the best director prize for French-Vietnamese filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng, best known for helming the “The Scent of Green Papaya” (1993), the first and only Vietnamese nominee for best international feature.
Written by Hùng and loosely based on Marcel Rouffe’s 1924 novel “The Passionate Epicure,” it follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Magimel), a preeminent chef who has been living with his personal cook...
Now under its new title — “The Taste of Things” – the movie will also have a qualifying run to be considered in all general categories, including best picture.
Starring Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”) and Cesar winner Benoît Magime (“Pacification”), the movie received critical acclaim after its premiere, winning the best director prize for French-Vietnamese filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng, best known for helming the “The Scent of Green Papaya” (1993), the first and only Vietnamese nominee for best international feature.
Written by Hùng and loosely based on Marcel Rouffe’s 1924 novel “The Passionate Epicure,” it follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Magimel), a preeminent chef who has been living with his personal cook...
- 8/16/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Winner of the Camera d’Or (and the Award of the Youth French Film) for The Scent of Green Papaya back in 1993, while he has known international success (example he won Golden Lion in Venice two short years later with Cyclo) Tran Anh Hung isn’t much of a mainstay in Cannes having only returned to the Un Certain Regard section back in 2000 with The Vertical Ray of the Sun. The Pot au Feu (aka La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) is his first film in competition.
Featuring Juliette Binoche as Eugénie and Benoît Magimel as Dodin Bouffant, this focuses on Eugenie, an esteemed cook, has been working for over the last 20 years for Dodin, a fine gourmet.…...
Featuring Juliette Binoche as Eugénie and Benoît Magimel as Dodin Bouffant, this focuses on Eugenie, an esteemed cook, has been working for over the last 20 years for Dodin, a fine gourmet.…...
- 5/26/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The dream of ’90s film is alive and thriving in Trần Anh Hùng’s “The Pot au Feu,” a movie that left intoxicated attendees at the Cannes Film Festival premiere both starving — given the film’s ambrosial depictions of just about every dish in the bible of haute gastronomy — and more fully sated on that precise “peak Miramax” style than from any film in at least the past decade.
If anything, this wonderful confection is an even more refined spin on those amber-hued period dramas that defined the upscale strata during the late-Clinton years. For bereft of narrative tension, and with a preference for steaks over stakes, “The Pot au Feu” might very well be the most handsomely shot and soothingly felt serving of art house food porn ever brought to screen. It’s about to become your mother’s favorite film, and it’s an absolute delight.
Also Read:...
If anything, this wonderful confection is an even more refined spin on those amber-hued period dramas that defined the upscale strata during the late-Clinton years. For bereft of narrative tension, and with a preference for steaks over stakes, “The Pot au Feu” might very well be the most handsomely shot and soothingly felt serving of art house food porn ever brought to screen. It’s about to become your mother’s favorite film, and it’s an absolute delight.
Also Read:...
- 5/24/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Emmanuelle Bercot’s Peaceful (De Son Vivant in the French) is a noble endeavor, if a bit didactic. Above all else the film serves as a solid showcase for its stellar cast. We follow a young acting teacher, Benjamin (Benoît Magimel), who’s doing his best to ignore the fact that he is dying. He’s got pancreatic cancer. His controlling mother Crystal (Catherine Deneuve) appears more urgently worried. Deneuve, unsurprisingly, is the anchor of this picture. The living legend excels at making it look easy, and here—playing both steadfast and guilt-stricken—she’s as natural as ever. A truly impressive less-is-more supporting turn. Magimel also does strong work, accentuating the curse of a cancer-riddled body. He can’t really compete with Deneuve in their scenes together, but who can? Points for the effort alone.
On the edges of its central narrative is Dr. Eddé (Gabriel Sara), the optimistic...
On the edges of its central narrative is Dr. Eddé (Gabriel Sara), the optimistic...
- 11/7/2022
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
What does it mean to die “peacefully”? Is it possible to find grace and joy in something so solemn? That death has the power to grant forgiveness and empathy is the core tenet of Emmannuelle Bercot’s weepy cancer drama “Peaceful,” which explores a year in the life of a young man facing a terminal diagnosis.
Benoît Magimel (“The Piano Teacher”) stars as Benjamin, a 39-year-old acting teacher and self-described failure who, after some months of back pain, learns that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It’s a brutal diagnosis not only for him, but also for his mother Crystal (Catherine Deneuve) who likes to believe she’s able to control the heartache and the happiness of her son’s life.
Regardless of how the two choose to “fight” the illness, it will be terminal for Benjamin no matter what. He will die of the disease. How he chooses to spend that final year,...
Benoît Magimel (“The Piano Teacher”) stars as Benjamin, a 39-year-old acting teacher and self-described failure who, after some months of back pain, learns that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It’s a brutal diagnosis not only for him, but also for his mother Crystal (Catherine Deneuve) who likes to believe she’s able to control the heartache and the happiness of her son’s life.
Regardless of how the two choose to “fight” the illness, it will be terminal for Benjamin no matter what. He will die of the disease. How he chooses to spend that final year,...
- 11/4/2022
- by Fran Hoepfner
- The Wrap
Sea, quiet and sun. A holidaymaker on his paddleboard. In a few minutes, this idyllic picture is shattered: the man is knocked off his board into the water, and is then devoured by a shark.
Almost 50 years since Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” brought terror to the New England beach town of Amity Island, a shark has appeared on the other side of the ocean to cause panic among French vacationers heading for the Atlantic coast.
“Year of the Shark,” which premiered this week at 21st Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival, ahead of its release in France on Aug. 3, is neither a remake of “Jaws,” nor a pastiche of the genre, explain the directors, French twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, who are 30 years old.
The Boukherma twins are well-aware that the arrival of the first shark film ever to be made in France, with a five-star cast, is creating a great...
Almost 50 years since Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” brought terror to the New England beach town of Amity Island, a shark has appeared on the other side of the ocean to cause panic among French vacationers heading for the Atlantic coast.
“Year of the Shark,” which premiered this week at 21st Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival, ahead of its release in France on Aug. 3, is neither a remake of “Jaws,” nor a pastiche of the genre, explain the directors, French twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, who are 30 years old.
The Boukherma twins are well-aware that the arrival of the first shark film ever to be made in France, with a five-star cast, is creating a great...
- 7/10/2022
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
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