The Taste of Things – Movie Review

The Taste of Things – A movie review & reaction by Movie Husband’s Geoff & Matt #thetasteofthings #thetasteofthingsreview #moviereview

Time Stamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:26 – Initial Thoughts
6:25 – The Cinematography/Editing
8:16 – More Analysis
10:27 – Grades & Final Thoughts

“The Taste of Things (French: La Passion de Dodin Bouffant, lit. ’The Passion of Dodin Bouffant’), is a 2023 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Trần Anh Hùng starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. Set in 1889, it depicts a romance between a cook and the gourmet she works for.” – Wikipedia

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Hello welcome back to movie husbands today we’ll be reviewing the taste of things cook Eugene and her boss Doan have grown found of one another over the past 20 years and their romance continues to rise to dishes that impress the world’s most illustrious chefs when dodan is faced with euan’s reluctance to

Commit he begins to cook for her the film is directed by Tran an Hong and stars Juliet benos and Beno majal so Matt what you think of the taste of things so I’m sure you were very much happy to see Ben W Ben W meim yes for my

Darling Pacific from his darling paci I I just want to say it it’s not like Pacific introduced me to benoa Majel he’s like the Brad Pit of French Cinema he’s in all these French movies you ever see the piano teacher I don’t think so it’s an amazing film he’s so good in it

And it rocked my world for weeks and made me feel awful anyway I love Beno majal I also love Julia BOS yeah so French A-list involved in this movie it is very much an O to French cooking and cuisine you have this head of the household and this beautiful luxurious

Castle who is played by benois and Juliet who plays the chef that works there but they seem to be also interconnected by this relationship he is trying to marry her and he’s been trying for a while it seems as he keeps bringing this question up and she keeps

Declining that is almost a smaller aspect of the movie I know you mentioned that in the narrative in the intro but this film is really centered around cooking and Cuisine the film is really highlighting the Labor’s process of making these stocks the sauces and the layering of all these flavors into these

Wonderful looking mouthwatering Savory dishes we were remarking during the film how hungry this film was making us because of how beautiful and delicious everything looked pairing this process with a love story in a away is really meant to equate these two things and that food is love and I think that’s

What the film is ultimately about we get to see multiple scenes where not only is the cooking happening but people are savoring this food so they’re just sitting there tasting this food and going through it it seemed very comforting and lived in with the hectic paste that a kitchen could have there’s

A lot of things happening at once but this felt like a very much like a Flyin thewall setting of visually seeing these people walking throughout the kitchen and equate to some of those beautifully drawn scenes in the movie think about this film as as compared to like

Something like the bear we really like the Bear right that’s also a show that’s about fine dining and about producing great food think about how subtle this film is about how languid the pace is about how it finds itself in the process I think so much so than the bear does

The bear finds itself in anxiety this film is relishing in the process and I really identify with that and love that and relishing in the comfort of that process completely I mean I I use the word elegant a lot when we talk about film and I think like is there a film

That’s more deserving of that than this film it’s just so sumptuously photographed it’s so Majestic in its Ambitions I don’t want to undermine the film in any way but it’s so classically composed it’s so it’s a concerns are so simple but it’s such like a subtle and affecting Love Story between these two

People who are completely miraculous chefs but much of the films allore frankly lies in the miracle of gastronomy and of cooking yeah this is one of those films that you’re not going to find a lot of subtext in everything is very much right there for you the

Narrative is really to the point and I think that’s what makes it really nice and a compliment to the film itself it could seem to maybe some people that the film is very slight in that regard I will admit I’m one of those people that

Found it to be kind of SL I think sometimes I can look for grandio statements and and think that’s the be all end all of film and I think this film was a really lovely reminder that you don’t always need to do that because this film takes place in the 1800s we

See the origins and these old-fashioned methods of creating some really classic French dishes like P Fu or volent even the first 45 minutes of the film is this leisurely paced tour through this gigantic meal right what the film gets right about Gastronomy is also something I see about the film’s pacing itself is

That great colar Arts is partly about the recipe but also using established techniques and partly instinctual type of innovation in matching flavor opposites so in a way the film is exploring how the culinary arts is a meeting of Art and Science in that way and you’ll have many shifts that lean

This way or lean another way but there’s always a push and pull between those opposites and culinary arts you see that this film even with its hace is a very stop and smell the roses type of atmosphere through its improvisation or knowing what we know about film making these scenes seem more rigorously

Planned than we imagine on screen they seem improvised but they’re clearly not yeah there’s almost a relaxing quality to watching such a detailed process bit by bit I know this is a strange example but there are these like trends of Tik toks to watch people just doing their

Routine at night this is very similar to that but in a very luxurious fashion for fantastic food yeah I was actually just going to say that because I watch a lot of gardening YouTube videos one of them is Garden answer on YouTube and she does just that it’s not cut with much

Grandiosity it’s really just following her as she’s going through all her chores of taking care of her cut flower garden and her vegetable garden and doing things in the winter within her Greenhouse all these things feel very like gentle and nice and very lived in in a very simplistic way which is

Something I really did enjoy about the film what would be very interesting is because we’re from the USA I would really be interested if we have any french viewers to talk a little B about the details in this film because I think there are some things that they will Rel

With that we will not understand at all culturally there were some things in the film we did relate to like we have been to Avon yeah and they talk about there was a lady on the plane who had to correct us on the pronunciation multiple

Times when we went there but I would not have understood that and that reference had I not been there we are also great lovers of French wine so as the film is going on they’re talking about the wonders of burgundy in these various Villages SHP shot pop is in Ron but

Shamb Boule which is in burgundy we we were like eating this up I said in my letter box review like I would murder for a glass of pomard right now which is what we did we came home and we opened yeah we opened up B the second 90 second

We got home and by the way we ate dinner on the way to the film watched the film and left starving was absolutely starving but basically my point is if we understood those very few details about the movie there were so many other references that I didn’t understand that

I would very much love to be illuminated on if we have any french viewers I’m going to put you on the spot for a second okay what did you think of the cinematography overall talk to about it oh I am a little conflicted with the cinematographer me too oh my gosh this

Is why I asked okay so I thought the light was absolutely gorgeous in this film like a lot of natural light natural Gardens but I got really distracted by the camera movements yes yes okay I’m so p no I’m so glad you because I I think the film really could have benefited

From more Stillness it worked a lot better for me in the outdoor scenes there’s this amazing scene at a long table where they’re celebrating their matrimony I thought that was amazing there’s a scene after that that’s baked in this uh this natural Golden Light of them walking by the lake I thought that

Was gorgeous those Wide Open Spaces are great but some of the Interior scenes especially in the first 45 minutes it it feels like the camera is jumbling from like one area to another and it’s almost being shot in this handheld way that reminds me of like Paul Greengrass yeah

I didn’t like that at all I thought the film could have benefited from all of this Stillness and frankly like all of the enjoyment that is in French cooking that really counteracted all of the process to me I have an interesting take on this I guess I would say I feel like

Not so much of it is at fault with the cinematography than is as fault with the editor and I noticed this a lot in that intro cooking scene that happened because there were moments where it was one take and it was just grazing from person to person as they were doing work

In the kitchen I thought that was some of the best moments in that scene however the problem came to be when they would cut I found the cuts to be very disorienting and almost like a jump cut in a fashion that made it seem like we were jumping from a different location

In the kitchen to another that was very jarring for me it interrupted the fluidity of cooking it’s funny that we were on the same page with that we were yeah no I know I was I was watching the film and I was so into it and this first

45 minutes I’m just like why is this camera moving so much like this is a Cloverfield level of this of this camera moving and I just didn’t understand it this is a little tidbit but great monologues about the seasons kind of a strange I love that little pair yeah I

Love that little bit too like we’re both food levers you keep a vegetable garden in the summer so our Cuisine certainly matches the seasons and I always find myself looking forward to the Bounty that the seasons have to offer us I love stews in the winter and I love like very

Light summer dishes in the summer and it’s kind of used as this extended metaphor for the characters because they keep talking about how they’re in the Autumn of their lives meaning they’re approaching the winter which I guess in this metaphor means they old age so they’re in the Autumn of their lives and

It’s kind of their last chance to be able to find love in their lives which I find really beautiful but anyway the way that the film uses Seasons to talk about not only love but about cooking I I really identified with I want to mention too that really terrific performances by

Um benoa majal and Julia BOS as the film unfolds in the second half to show their love story The Script really doesn’t give them a lot which is interesting not meaning that the script is poor but a lot has put on their performances to deliver a shared history that the film

Doesn’t necessarily give us and I thought that romance’s potency approached like breathlessness at times not a lot but the the final scene for sure and some of the more melancholic scenes towards the end maim he has this way of taking beats or like pauses in the middle of his sentences it has this

Quality that I find mannered but also like very realistic it keeps me engaged in dialogue that I might otherwise not be engaged with on that note I want to highlight and I apologize if pronouncing her name incorrectly Bonnie shenu rerey she plays Pauline in the film and she

Comes in pretty much she bookends the film at the beginning and at the end of the film she is this girl that is looking to study under uan and learn about cooking and she has a lot of promis to her she is bookending the film

In a way that really highlights in a way like new life and new birth I really enjoyed her performance she has these wonderful closeups that just show the sincerity in her facial features and her reactions it’s funny how so much of this film is the reactions of people just

Tasting food anyone who watches YouTube cooks or chopped or whatever you could have watched this film no problem yeah it may be in French but like if you love food you could watch this movie without an issue yeah but she brought this wonderful depth to the film that I

Really enjoyed so you ready to go to grades I am ready to go to Graves I give the taste of things a bee I found it to be a very lovely film about French cuisine and cooking it’s funny how it’s like not telling you how these things

Are done but it’s showing you and you also kind of learn something in that regard just the way that flavors are being layered like they cook the meat with vegetables just to bring the Aromas to the meat but then they just discard the vegetables it’s like a lot of the

Process that goes into it you learn a little bit which is kind of cool I agree I I give the film a b as well I think they’re looking at the the film or in the characters as very mysterious you can kind of fill in the blanks of why

They are the way they are so I think it’s a lot more intentional and frankly I think it’s better crafted at the same time I did find myself wanting more from this film and I found it so lovely I I literally could watch people cook great

Food all day long it’s funny it’s a very classical French film it’s very classical about the way that it looks at characters it’s very classical about the way that it looks at food we didn’t talk about this it’s really interesting that this was picked over anatomy of a fall

Yeah Anatomy fall is a much more modern film frankly I think it’s a film that is better written in some ways and also is a film that could have more widespread appeal yeah it’s lovely but I’m not sure why it was picked it seems like it was catering to what French people would

Love maybe in a certain way I can understand as a French person if you’re saying I want my culture to be represented in this way when I go to the Oscars exactly I kind of understand that but at the same time I think we have to look at what’s the best film yeah

Especially when you have all these films from all these different countries competing you have to think Beyond just what is going to please our own populace I guess yeah but all things considered I really thought the performances were wonderful I think there’s so many things

To like about it it’s a film that has very slight ambition so it’s hard for it to like plant itself in your memory with ambitions like that so that’s it for a review of the taste of things which is now playing in theaters please go see it

And let us know what you think of the film certainly in the comment section below and we will see you next time