Geliebte Köchin
('The Taste of Things')

a film by Trần Anh Hùng
Starring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Emmanuel Salinger and others
Introduced by Dieter Kosslick

A man and a woman in the kitchen of a country house during the Belle Époque. Together, they prepare opulent dishes with assured movements, in silence and in absolute harmony with each other. What does cooking together reveal about a love affair, and can one be a recipe for the other? The Taste of Things by the Vietnam-born Frenchman Trần Anh Hùng is a film adaptation of Marcel Rouff's novel The Passionate Epicure: La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet.

Benoît Magimel plays Dodin, a rich, culinary literate gourmand, and Juliette Binoche his cook and lover. Dodin is challenged by a prince with an eight-hour meal, and he responds to the challenge in his own way with an invitation to a supposedly simple French stew, a pot-au-feu: an artful composition of few ingredients of outstanding quality. The camera celebrates the preparation, cooking and texture of the culinary compositions. It peeks into simmering pots and sizzling pans, swings over festively laid tables, and time and again focuses on the concentrated, expectant faces of the couple in the kitchen. The film shows cooking as an art form, and as a sensual, poetic way to get in touch with the world – and then turns into an increasingly melancholic celebration of life and love.

22:00
Film, Chestnut Lawn