The Taste of Things

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Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche 

Tràn Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things, which the director adapted from Marcel Rouff's 1924 novel La Vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant, gourmet, is an almost perfect marriage of director and subject. Mr. Tràn, whose films have rippled with sensual delight since The Scent of Green Papaya, has found an ideal vehicle for his skills in this evocation of two gourmands creating culinary magic at a French country estate circa 1890. Dodin (Benoit Magimel) and Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) have shared a passion for food and each other for twenty years, but despite Dodin's entreaties, Eugénie has been adamant about keeping her single status. They know that their romantic idyll will end, as all romantic idylls do, but are united in a shared avocation and passion. We hear little of the world outside their estate, only snatches of gastronomic news. This might strike some as bourgeois indulgence, but Tràn has always stressed domestic intimacy over political statements. The graceful pans and propulsive tracking shots place us at elbow's length from a couple that is living for the moment. Once the moment is gone, a circle dolly transports us through time and Tràn once again ponders the transience of moments.

The Taste of Things production design is exquisite, as are the costumes which have a lived-in look. The restraint in the spare use of music is admirable. Ms. Binoche and Mr. Magimel, who have collaborated before on an even more magnificent endeavor, project a delicious rapport. Magimel has to do the heavy acting lifting, for reasons I shall not disclose, but is superb. Binoche is also quite impressive with none of the diva preening that marred her recent performances in Both Sides of the Blade and High Life. The supporting players are uniformly excellent, most particularly Emmanuel Salinger as Dr. Rabaz and the two young actresses that play the manor's kitchen staff and apprentices, Galatéa Bellugi and Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire. The theme of apprenticeship, of carrying on a legacy bequeathed by your elders, is a theme that has resounded through Tràn's career. Such a legacy can transcend time and space, surely a lesson that the director, who immigrated to France from Vietnam at the age of twelve, has taken to heart. As to The Taste of Things lack of political and social relevance, well, the preparation and consumption of food is central to all humans. Man doth not live on bread alone, but food is love, baby.