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Great Food Themed Movies
A just for fun page! Feel free to email me with your suggestions!
(Disclosure: This is my personal list of recommendations. I didn't pen most of the descriptions, but I did add my thoughts to a few.)
Babette's Feast (1987) A Danish movie about French woman in Denmark who is taken in by a pastor. She lives in a repressed world where earthly pleasures are not permitted, but when she wins the lottery she spends all the money on a feast in memory of the man who took her in during her time of need. The shopping and preparation of the dinner is lavish, and the story is heartwarming. It is an exquisite celebration of the joys of food, community and grace. This film won an Academy Award for best Foreign-Language Film. On a personal note, we named our dog "Babette" in honor of this film!
Chocolat (2000) Juliette Binoche is wonderful as a drifter who along with her young daughter opens a chocolate shop in a conservative 1960 French town. The town is mostly won over by her exquisite chocolate with the exception of the evil town mayor who organizes a boycott of her decadent immoral treats. Johnny Depp is along for the ride as an Irish gypsy. A fun, sexy and entertaining film filled with great performances.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971 - the original, although the remake isn't too bad). Certainly the most exuberant ode to candy ever put to celluloid, Gene Wilder is alternately creepy and strangely charming in one of the trippiest children's films around.
Ratatouille (2007) The Oscar winner for best animated film, it follows the adventures of an aspiring chef, and the gastronomic genius rat that helps him cook. It is remarkable how many true food principles are on display in this film, but the true message is that anybody can cook!
Big Night (1996) The movie that launched thousands of restaurant theme dinners. Perhaps no movie has ever captured the painstaking detail involved in creating a special feast. Two bickering brothers own a floundering Italian restaurant. They cannot understand how the rather pedestrian restaurant across the street succeeds while their spectacular cuisine fails to bring in customers. It is a conundrum face by restaurateurs throughout the world. Desperate, they hatch a plan to lure celebrity Louis Prima to the restaurant and serve a sumptuous meal that will surely put them on the map. The ensuing planning and cooking is stunning on the screen, and I dare anybody to watch this on an empty stomach.
Moonstruck (1987) This film, in which Cher and Nicolas Cage pursue an unlikely love affair, sets its pivotal conversations in Italian restaurants, or over breakfasts of red peppers, eggs and toast. Cher discovers the passionate, reckless Cage working the ovens in a bakery and eventually feeds him steak.
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).Four talented actresses tell a multi-generational story about friendship among women, centered around delicious Southern-cuisine concoctions and the unappetizing and satisfyingly vengeful fate for one Very Bad Husband. One of the greatest "didn't see THAT coming" endings ever.