REVENGE IS A TASTY DISH THAT’S BEST SERVED COLD
DIRECTOR Etienne Fourie follows up his quirky Afrikaans fantasy, Die Windpomp, with a solid adaptation of Marita van der Vyver’s book of foodie revenge.
In the world of Afrikaans rom-coms, this is a grown-up affair that deals with the un-glam side of relationships – when they break down and your partner doesn’t want you anymore.
What is glam about the film, though, is the artistic presentation – beautiful people, beautiful food and beautiful interior design. Lots of light and precisely-framed shots.
The film starts with Clara Brand (Van der Merwe) preparing jars and jars of konfyt, sobbing into her red wine, ignoring her best friend’s admonishments to open the damn gate already.
Clara is a food writer whose husband has just left her for her best friend and she decides to decamp for Cape Town with her two kids in tow. Determined to make a new life for her little family, she tries to dip her toes into the pool of Etienne Fourie Anna Mart van der Merwe, Deon Lotz, Elsabe Zietsman, Frank Opperman, Deanre Reiners, Angelique Gerber 13 L 106 minutes dating and creating a new life, but her bestie, Minette (Zietsman), is just as determined to shove her in, clothes and all.
The camera lingers lovingly on glorious food being prepared, with many close-ups of Van der Merwe’s mouth as she joyfully consumes her way through her favourite things, rediscovering her joy in food. Sets are the kind that would feature in glossy interior design magazines and Clara’s imagined sequences of revenge on her two-timing ex are funny.
Van der Merwe provides a narration as Clara writes a manuscript addressed to ex-husband Bernard Marx (Lotz’s moustache supports the faintly ridiculous air about the lecherous character he creates), who is more often referred to as Bliksem (the film is in Afrikaans with distracting English subtitling that hovers on the picture rather than out of the frame). This internal narrative, couched in the language of cooking instructions, provides a window into Clara’s emotions as she struggles to find her equilibrium. The narration doesn’t provide the plot though, just the punctuation.
While Bernard sees Clara as unhinged, she realises that he simply does not know her – whether he forgot, or just never really saw her, and the film is more about Clara’s process to accepting herself than potentially what revenge she will wreak on Bernard.
About to step on stage as a brittle, suspicious and somewhat racist character in Athol Fugard’s latest play – Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek – Van der Merwe is a totally different character in this film. A strongly independent character who faces adversity and comes out stronger, Van der Merwe runs the gamut of emotions, dancing to Afrikaans pop with a glass in hand with total abandon in one scene, coquettish in the next, an understanding mother in a third scene, she is all these things, complex, but never schizophrenic. Creating a wellrounded character she is, rather than acts, and holds the film together without appearing to exert herself at all.